White urges bureaus to align credit score reporting for borrowers
After several mortgage brokers went to social media to discuss large increases in credit reporting costs coming in 2026, ideas for solving the issue have come from all corners of the industry.
The latest idea was reported on Monday, when the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) published a letter sent to the FHFA last Friday. In the letter, the MBA suggested that GSEs should require only one credit score pull for borrowers with a score of 700 or higher.
Reaction to the idea was mixed, with industry members happy that the discussion continued on ways to mitigate the high costs of credit reporting. Some were not in favor, concerned that one score might not be enough.
Kimber White (pictured top), president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, shared his thoughts on Tuesday. He is appreciative of the continuing dialogue but unsure whether this solution is really the best idea.
“I applaud people looking for solutions,” White told Mortgage Professional America. “But how are we helping the consumer? How is it helping the industry? Without any uniformity and guidelines, there is potential manipulation of the system, potential harm that could be caused, and the potential lack of pricing competition.
“If a broker says, ‘Susie, your credit score with Experian is 800, but the company that Bill has you with is a 700, so I can give you a better price than Bill’s company can give you.’ Do we need to add more confusion to the consumer?”
Early payment default buybacks
One major concern White had was that mortgage brokers have early payment default buyback clauses in place. This means that if a borrower stops making payments soon after the loan funds are disbursed, the risk is shifted back to the originator. This could cost the broker compensation or even require them to cover the loan's losses.
“My concern is that you're not getting a true picture,” White said. “My concern with these types of things is that we have buybacks. Brokers have buybacks within a certain period and early-payment default buybacks, too. Are we really getting true pictures of their credit history? That’s like going in and pulling Credit Karma. You’re not getting the borrower’s true credit score.”
While some of the worst-case scenarios would likely be avoided for borrowers with higher credit scores, White is concerned that if the tri-merge is abandoned in favor of a single-pull system, the score threshold could be lowered in the future.
“They're saying above 700, I understand that,” he said. “But at what point does it go down lower? It always starts here and goes somewhere else in our industry.”
Too much disparity
The credit unions have warned that a move away from the tri-merge might cause some qualified borrowers to be turned down, while also allowing some people who should be rejected to slide through.
Satyan Merchant, senior vice president, mortgage and automotive at TransUnion, warned that it might keep people from getting approved.
“The data consistently shows that more information means more opportunity for homebuyers,” Merchant said. “A ‘single-pull’ environment creates significant risk that strong borrowers will lose access to credit, while additional at-risk borrowers find themselves in a mortgage they can’t afford.”
The issue White sees is that there are too many differences between the scores provided by the three credit bureaus.
“There's too much disparity right now,” he said. “There are people with two 640 credit scores, and the third score is 700, and it doesn't reflect their score, because that bureau wasn't really reflecting their entire credit history for some reason. The two other bureaus show major delinquencies. You're not getting your full picture by using one bureau.”
Peter Idziak of Polunsky Beitel Green urges mortgage brokers to verify that AI tools comply with regulations like ECOA and FHA, stressing the need for transparency in vendor training data and decision-making processes.https://t.co/ZHtnLWoAZS
— Mortgage Professional America Magazine (@MPAMagazineUS) November 26, 2025
White said things won’t change until the three credit bureaus share the same information. He said in this age of rapidly improving information technology, it’s hard to believe the credit industry can’t figure out a uniform scoring system.
“If you want to fix this, you get the bureaus together and get their reporting figured out,” White said. “How about us going down to the bureaus and saying, ‘Figure out how y'all can report together.’ That fixes it. The big difference is the way it's reporting and who it’s reporting to. We have AI. We have the best ability to pull data in the world right now, but the credit reports are still a mystery. That makes no sense to me.”
Stay updated with the freshest mortgage news. Get exclusive interviews, breaking news, and industry events in your inbox, and always be the first to know by subscribing to our FREE daily newsletter.
