“If the loan criteria says you need to have a 700 credit score, and you have a 699, you don’t get the loan,” she said. “It makes me nuts.” Yes, it's called an

“If the loan criteria says you need to have a 700 credit score, and you have a 699, you don’t get the loan,” she said. “It makes me nuts.” Yes, it's called an algorithm. I'm guessing she doesn't understand that. "Their bottom line number is 620 — the company will buy mortgages only if the borrower has a credit score of 620 or above. Which means, given the current state of the mortgage market, that anyone with a score below 620 can’t get a mortgage. Even if that score is 619." The thing is regulators are looking at that number. There is a cut off there. Especially now that the regulators are going through the bank books with a fine toothed comb. Guess what, the worse you portfolio, the higher your capital requirements become. (Your margin of safety) A company I worked for bought a huge portfolio of debt. Turns out the average FICO was way off or out of date. Very bad thing. The original company had booked some really bad stuff and was one of many that went down in the waves of financial institution failures. Bad mortgages finally got them.