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Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) recently sent a letter to Fair Isaac Corporation announcing that as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and as a member of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, he is investigating the company’s pricing practices in the mortgage credit scoring market.
Fair Isaac generates a consumer credit score known as FICO, which the Senator notes “dominates the credit scoring market with a product used by 90% of lenders, potentially commanding an even larger market share for first-time home buyers.” The Senator states that over the past five years the company increased its per-score wholesale royalty for mortgage originations from $0.60 to $10.00, and in 2026 doubled its per-score price from $4.95 to $10.00. He asserts that the per-score price increase has the potential to cost the mortgage industry approximately $500 million.
The Senator also states that the company’s “market dominance was not built solely through innovation. It was cemented by a regulatory framework that, for nearly three decades, required lenders selling to the government-sponsored enterprises to exclusively use FICO scores.” In July 2025, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced that the enterprises were taking steps to permit lenders to use the VantageScore 4.0 model, offered by VantageScore Solutions, as an alternative to the FICO score.
Credit score costs and credit report costs often are passed on to mortgage applicants, and the Senator states that the credit score price increases “are most damaging to the Americans who can least afford them” and that first-time homebuyers “bear a disproportionate burden of the cost.” In particular, he notes that homebuyers often pay for three credit scores with each loan application, that first time homebuyers who are ultimately able to purchase a home may submit several loan applications before obtaining financing, and that some prospective homebuyers may pay for multiple credit scores but fail to qualify or never find a home they can afford.
The Senator also sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission urging it to investigate the company’s credit score pricing practices.
The Mortgage Bankers Association has been critical of both credit score price increases and credit report price increases.
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