As the Wall Street Journal noted in 2021, some large financial institutions have moved away from using FICO into their lending decisions. The reasons are largely pragmatic. According to many lenders, large volumes of data combined with modern predictive analytics allow them to make more accurate determinations of who might repay a loan and who might not.

In addition, regulators have been concerned that traditional FICO scores have left too many in the US unable to gain access to better lines of credit, forcing them to use costlier forms. The issue becomes a self-reinforcing cycle. Without the property type of credit, consumers with positive payment histories don't see that reflected in their credit scores, leaving them with continued dependence on forms of credit that also will not be included.

As an example, according to Experian, one of the three big credit rating agencies, VantageScore is a product of all three. But rather than require a credit account that is at least six months old, VantageScore can provide a score so long as there is at least one account, even if less than six months. This model also looks at trends of credit usage, rather than most recent, and ignores paid collection accounts.

FICO 10T, which is a new version of FICO, also looks at trended data over the previous 24 months

But does this mean that more people would qualify for mortgages? It's hard to tell. FICO says that mortgage approval rates could be expanded by 5% with FICO 10T without adding incremental risk and that mortgage delinquency rates could be reduced by 17% with a 680 cutoff in the new system. But if approvals could expand by 5%, that might not mean under the 680 cutoff since delinquency rates are supposed to drop by more than the potentially increased number of approvals.

And then there is the reality of house prices and the need for down payments at higher mortgage rates. Applications have been falling off. It isn't clear that a different credit model will end the impact of the higher financial hurdles to buy.