The competition to reshape mortgage credit scoring is rapidly moving into lender workflows, with FICO and TransUnion reporting sharp gains Tuesday in their respective next-generation models.
More than 70 mortgage lenders have enrolled in FICO’s free-access program for FICO Score 10T, according to the analytics company. Participating lenders represent approximately $586 billion in annual originations and $1.865 trillion in servicing portfolios.
Separately, TransUnion said VantageScore 4.0 was included in approximately 30% of its mortgage credit pulls during the second quarter, up from less than 5% at the beginning of the year.
The competing figures do not necessarily mean lenders are using either model to approve or price all the mortgages involved. FICO’s total represents lenders participating in a program that provides Score 10T alongside Classic FICO, while TransUnion’s figure measures credit pulls that include VantageScore 4.0, not loans underwritten using the score.
Still, the gains show that the industry’s credit-scoring contest is moving beyond regulatory decisions, pricing announcements, and competing performance studies. Lenders are increasingly incorporating models into their existing credit workflows, giving them an opportunity to compare borrower scores and potential underwriting outcomes.
Among the lenders that recently committed to FICO Score 10T are Fairway Home Mortgage, InterLinc Mortgage Services, Lower Mortgage, NFM Lending, Novus Home Mortgage, Plaza Home Mortgage, and Village Capital & Investment.
“As we work to make homeownership more accessible for more families, we’re proud to adopt FICO Score 10T and its predictive credit scoring model that provides a more accurate view of credit risk,” Novus President and CEO Eric Egenhoefer said. “We are excited to use this innovative technology that aligns so well with our ultimate goal of helping more families into homes of their own.”
Free Access Fuels Model Evaluations
FICO Score 10T uses trended credit bureau information and reported rental data to evaluate how consumers manage their obligations over time. That differs from the older Classic FICO models, which provide lenders with a more complete snapshot of a borrower’s credit profile.
Under FICO’s free-access program, participating lenders receive FICO Score 10T alongside the Classic FICO score they already use through dual processing. FICO does not charge an additional fee for the newer score during the evaluation period.
FICO claims Score 10T can produce up to 5% more approvals at the same level of risk or reduce delinquencies by up to 17% while maintaining the same approval rate. Those figures are company estimates and may not reflect the results of every lender or loan portfolio.
“We’re at an inflection point in mortgage credit decisioning, and FICO Score 10T is at the center of it,” said Julie May, vice president and general manager of B2B Scores at FICO. “More than 70 lenders have now recognized that the most predictive credit score on the market is also accessible at no additional cost, and that combination is driving a notable shift in how the industry evaluates credit risk.”
TransUnion, one of the three credit bureaus that jointly owns VantageScore, is pursuing a similar strategy. It is providing VantageScore 4.0 at no additional charge through 2026 to mortgage customers purchasing a FICO score, allowing lenders to receive and evaluate the competing model alongside FICO.
That distribution strategy helped increase the portion of TransUnion mortgage credit pulls containing VantageScore 4.0 from less than 5% at the beginning of 2026 to approximately 30% in the second quarter, according to the company’s earnings presentation.
FICO Costs Lift TransUnion Revenue, Pressure Margins
TransUnion’s results also illustrate the financial stakes surrounding mortgage credit scoring.
The company reported that its mortgage revenue increased 37% from a year earlier during the second quarter, even though mortgage inquiries declined 7%. Excluding higher FICO royalties, mortgage revenue increased 15%.
TransUnion treats the royalties as a pass-through expense and said the increase reduced its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization margin by approximately 90 basis points during the quarter.
For the full year, TransUnion expects higher FICO mortgage royalties to add approximately three percentage points to its reported revenue growth while reducing its adjusted EBITDA margin by approximately 90 basis points.
Credit-report and score costs have become a growing concern for mortgage lenders, brokers, and trade groups. That pressure has helped drive support for greater competition between scoring models and encouraged both camps to reduce the immediate expense of model evaluation.
Competition Moves Into Lender Workflows
The latest developments follow several important steps in the industry’s transition toward newer scoring models.
Earlier this month, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac released historical FICO Score 10T data covering loans acquired between 2013 and 2025. The datasets allow lenders, investors, mortgage insurers, and technology providers to compare Score 10T results with actual mortgage performance.
VantageScore subsequently released a study claiming its 4.0 model could identify more than five million additional creditworthy consumers, representing up to $1 trillion in potential mortgage originations.
A separate Milliman analysis released in May found that FICO Score 10T outperformed VantageScore 4.0 in predicting mortgage default risk across the loan categories it examined.
The next meaningful test will not be how frequently the newer scores appear on credit reports, but whether lenders begin using them to change approvals, pricing, and loan delivery. For LOs, that could eventually mean different borrowers qualify — or receive different loan terms — depending on which score a lender chooses.
