By Mackenzie Tatananni

Shares of Fair Isaac, the credit analytics company, plunged Wednesday after a Trump-appointed official expressed his disappointment with the company's decision to raise wholesale royalty fee for credit scores.

FICO stock fell 16% to $1,708.55, and was on pace for its largest same-day percentage decrease since a 14% drop in March 2020, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The S&P 500 was down 0.1%.

Shares were extending losses from Tuesday after ending the session down 8%. That decline came even before Bill Pulte, the Trump-appointed director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, took to social media to voice his dismay over FICO's pricing strategy.

"I am Extremely disappointed to hear about the costs increases by FICO onto American consumers," Pulte wrote.

His remarks came after FICO in November 2024 raised its credit score fee for mortgage originations to $4.95 from $3.50, representing an increase of more than 40%.

The move was met with swift backlash from Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who wrote to the Justice Department last month renewing calls for an investigation into the "apparently anticompetitive practices of the Fair Isaac Corporation."

Pulte seemed to reference Hawley's attempt to take on the analytics company as he referenced the "work of many great Senators" in a post to X.

In his letter in April, Hawley called FICO "the only real competitor in the credit scoring market" and alleged its price hikes "have led to prodigious profits for the company, but at the expense of working Americans."

Barron's has written that FICO benefits from inelastic demand, or the ability to raise prices without losing customers, largely due to its market stronghold.

Barron's has asked for comment from Fair Isaac on Pulte's comments.

Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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May 21, 2025 11:35 ET (15:35 GMT)

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