Bill Pulte, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to immediately approve all mortgage lenders’ use of VantageScore 4.0 after a 50-lender rollout in which the model accounted for more than 9% of securitized mortgages. Pulte also said the FHFA was seriously considering bi-merge reporting, allowing lenders to use two rather than three credit bureaus, potentially reducing industry report volume by one-third. The announcements pressured credit-sector shares, with Fair Isaac falling as much as 20.9% intraday, TransUnion declining 7.02% to $78.96 and Equifax later falling 5.62% to $178.46.