Rocket Mortgage First Lender to Adopt VantageScore 4.0 for All Loans
Rocket Mortgage will use VantageScore 4.0 as its preferred credit model on all eligible loans, a first among U.S. home lenders.
Rocket Mortgage, the lending arm of Rocket Companies (NYSE: RKT), announced it will become the first mortgage lender in the United States to designate VantageScore 4.0 as its preferred credit-scoring model across all eligible loan applications, the company said Sept. 28, 2026.
The move follows internal testing that showed a broader share of applicants met credit requirements under VantageScore 4.0 compared with legacy scoring models. The testing also indicated that qualifying borrowers could benefit from lower costs, though specific figures were not disclosed in the announcement.
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The decision marks a notable shift in the mortgage industry, which has historically relied on older FICO-based models for underwriting decisions. By standardizing on VantageScore 4.0, Rocket Mortgage signals growing momentum behind alternative credit-scoring frameworks that proponents argue capture creditworthiness more accurately for a wider range of consumers, including those with limited traditional credit histories.
Rocket Companies, headquartered in Detroit, is one of the largest mortgage originators in the country. Industry analysts have noted that a high-volume lender adopting a new scoring standard at scale could accelerate broader acceptance of VantageScore across the residential lending market, potentially influencing how competing lenders and secondary-market investors evaluate credit risk going forward.
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