The Federal Housing Finance Agency directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to accept VantageScore 4.0 from all mortgage lenders, ending Fair Isaac Corporation's decades-long monopoly in the US mortgage credit scoring market. Fair Isaac, known as FICO, had implemented cumulative price increases of roughly 1,800% per score since 2020, but VantageScore is marketed at under $1 against FICO's $10-plus. Following the September 4, 2026 order, FICO's stock fell about 16.7% to $932.26, roughly 53% down from its 52-week high of $1,998. In its third quarter results released on July 29, 2026, revenue rose 26% to $674 million, with mortgage origination revenue surging 97% and accounting for 62% of Scores revenue, while total software segment revenue grew by just 2%. The erosion from VantageScore adoption will be slow due to system upgrades, but FICO's unconstrained pricing power is gone, and the stock now trades at roughly 32 times earnings with short interest near 10.01% of float.
Fair Isaac CorporationFHFA order ends FICO's mortgage monopoly, removing pricing power and causing stock drop.
PayPal Holdings IncVantageScore gains market access as FHFA mandates its use, competing with FICO.
