MBA analysis finds minimal pricing impact from single credit score approach

An analysis published Friday by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) suggests that using a single randomly selected credit bureau score, rather than the current multiscore “decisioning” method, would have little effect on loan pricing or guarantee fee revenue for the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs).

The MBA examined nearly 105,000 mortgage applications from the first half of 2025 using Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) McDash loan application data.

Researchers found that a randomly selected credit score landed in the same Fannie Mae loan-level price adjustment (LLPA) bucket as the current decisioning score roughly two-thirds of the time, with about 90% of scores falling within one pricing bucket above or below the decisioning score.

The findings come as the mortgage industry continues to debate changes to credit scoring requirements, including proposals to move away from the longstanding practice of requiring multiple credit bureau scores for mortgage underwriting.

For the analysis, the MBA used the methodology outlined in Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide to calculate decisioning credit scores. When three borrower credit scores were available, researchers used the middle score; when two scores were available, they used the lower score; and when only one score was reported, that score became the decisioning score.

The sample excluded loans with co-borrowers and applications containing credit scores below 500.

Researchers then simulated a single-file approach by randomly selecting one available bureau score for each application and comparing its corresponding LLPA pricing bucket with the decisioning score.

Among borrowers with decisioning credit scores between 700 and 719, nearly 68% of randomly selected scores fell into the same pricing bucket, while about 91% landed either in the same bucket or one bucket higher or lower. The MBA said upward and downward movements between adjacent pricing buckets occurred at roughly equal rates, indicating little net change in LLPA revenue.

The association said these patterns remained consistent across the entire LLPA matrix, leading it to conclude that moving to a single credit file would likely have little impact on either mortgage credit risk or loan-level price adjustment revenue.

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication.