Opinion: FICO, the 3Bs: Fruit from a rotten tree. Here's how we fix It.

"FICO's per-score price has gone up 1,800% since 2020. It's damning. It's also a bureau pointing a finger at the single competitor to VantageScore."

"FICO fires back just as hard. They document that the bureaus marked up the FICO score approximately 100% for decades, buying the score and doubling the price before it ever reached a lender."

"Nobody in this fight is wrong about what the other guy is doing. That's exactly the problem. Everyone's shifting blame. Nobody's fixing anything."

"The policy and regulatory framework that handed one company a de facto monopoly on credit scoring and handed three companies a government-mandated oligopoly on credit data."

Equifax claims FICO is responsible for rising mortgage credit costs, citing an 1,800% increase in FICO's score price since 2020. FICO counters that credit bureaus have marked up their scores by 100% for decades, creating a conflict of interest with their ownership of VantageScore. Both parties shift blame without addressing accountability, leading to ongoing consumer costs. The root issue lies with the FHFA, which established monopolistic structures in credit scoring and data, allowing these practices to persist for decades without reform.

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