Person
Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the regulator of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks.
FHFA gave VantageScore pricing parity with FICO classic, but 5% to 6% of loans in its market use it, per industry data Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyzed. MBA's Bob Broeksmit says the choice cuts borrower costs, while William Raveis Mortgage will stay on FICO until forced.
Reality
FICO will cut about 15% of its staff, roughly 570 jobs, and book $27 million in charges, mostly severance, to fold AI into its products. The cut comes weeks after housing regulators moved to loosen FICO's grip on mortgage scoring, and the timing makes it as much a cost defence as an AI story.
Reality
Pennymac is adding VantageScore 4.0 to all three of its lending channels, so the three largest US mortgage originators now all use the score. The next fight is whether FHFA lets the agencies drop from three credit reports per loan to two.
Reality
Freddie Mac has made capital-markets head John Glessner its chief risk officer as well, at no extra pay, after Anil Hinduja left the job. The role oversees the push to price VantageScore 4.0 loans like FICO loans, now about 5% of new GSE deliveries.
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Fed inspector general Michael Horowitz found no crime in the $2.5 billion headquarters renovation and blamed poor project management for its cost. His report moves the argument from Powell's testimony to the budget controls the Fed never put in place.
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The bank's researchers say the scores Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac generate inside automated underwriting predict 90-plus-day delinquency at 24 months better than the measures pulled at application. Investors mostly see them in securities disclosures.
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Cook rates 21 Republican-held House seats as toss-ups against five Democratic ones. In the Senate, Democrats need four net gains out of six toss-ups. Only that chamber decides whether financial regulators get confirmed.
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