By Janet H. Cho
Shares of Fair Isaac Co. and credit reporting firms were dropping on Tuesday afternoon amid calls for greater affordability for potential home buyers.
Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte said credit score pricing and credit bureau pricing "must be more affordable" in a social media post that acknowledged an earlier post on the same subject by Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley.
Fair Isaac shares fell 7.8% to $980.17 in afternoon trading.
Shares of the credit reporting firms also fell. Equifax was down 6.7% at $167.61. TransUnion was down 6.8% at $66.69. American depositary receipts of Dublin-based Experian were down 3.8% at $34.22.
Hawley said in a social media post on Monday that he was starting an investigation into FICO, which is the stock symbol for Fair Isaac, a data analytics company. Fair Isaac produces what's known as the FICO Score, used to judge the creditworthiness of people looking to borrow money to buy a house, a car, or other big-ticket purchases.
"The increasing cost of credit scores is straining homebuyers in an already unaffordable market," Hawley said in his post. He also said he asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate FICO's "anticompetitive practices."
On Tuesday, Pulte replied to the post by saying "interesting."
Pulte in October accused Fair Isaac of being a monopoly that "has ripped off Americans for decades." He said he would permit mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to use a product from competitor VantageScore if they chose.
That criticism prompted Fair Isaac to announce big changes to its pricing models that enable mortgage lenders to calculate and distribute FICO scores directly to borrowers -- bypassing the three nationwide credit bureaus -- TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. Pulte called the change a "first step."
Write to Janet H. Cho at janet.cho@dowjones.com
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March 24, 2026 15:21 ET (19:21 GMT)
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