Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac release data for credit score analysis

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac released loan data Thursday in an effort to respond to industry clamor for numbers to help them navigate the two influential government-related loan buyers' move to modernized credit score models.

The April 2013 to March 2023 numbers made available for download is the first comprehensive set of data disseminated on this issue since collection began and is designed to allow industry stakeholders to examine how one of the two credit metrics the industry's moving to, Vantagescore 4.0, compares to the traditional FICO measure in current use.

"The release of historical credit scores on tens of millions of loans provides an extensive resource to help market participants prepare for this transition," Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Sandra Thompson said in a press release.

The move could bring the industry closer to score updates that are designed to allow mortgage lenders to underwrite more loans they could sell to Fannie and Freddie.

Modernized scores are designed to identify some borrowers with an ability to repay that traditional metrics might not pick up, and while Fannie, Freddie and FHFA have done analysis that have made them comfortable with the credit measures, lenders want to do their own.

Lenders retain some responsibility for loans they sell to Freddie and Fannie and can face what are known as repurchases or buybacks if certain flaws are found in underwriting, particularly if the mortgages don't perform well.

Also, credit scores play a key role in mortgage-backed securities investors' prepayment models. Mortgage insurers assessments of risks also rely on credit scores, so these stakeholders have been interested in the data as well, according to Dan Fichtler, a senior advisor to the FHFA.

In line with previous indications from the FHFA, which is the two government-sponsored enterprises' regulator and conservator, there are at-origination numbers in the release that are designed to be matched with other sets of data in order to analyze loan performance over time.

The new Vantagescore 4.0 information can be connected through loan identifiers to three sets of data disclosures the GSEs already have in place related to mortgage-backed securities, credit-risk transfers and historical performance.

"What that does is it allows users to be able to look at things like, for example, which loans eventually went delinquent or into default," Fichtler said.

When asked about industry requests for historical numbers that covered the Great Recession, in order to get a sense of performance during a distressed period, Fichtler noted that there were some constraints based on the availability of trended data from the credit bureaus.

Trended data, which reflects consumer management of debt over time, has only been available from the credit bureaus since 2013, he said. Previously, credit reports that were pulled consisted of static snapshots of consumer data reflecting only a single point in time.

Fannie, Freddie and the FHFA are working on releasing data that would accommodate an analysis of the other modernized score that Fannie and Freddie are moving toward in response to a legislative mandate, FICO 10-T.

"We're working quite hard to be able to get that out as well," Fitchler said. "We wanted to move the data that we do have as quickly as possible so folks could start doing their analysis."