source:
  type: guide
  id: fnma-sel-b3-5.2-01
  authority: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-5.2-01 — Requirements for Credit Reports
  description: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-5.2-01 — Requirements for Credit Reports.
  coverage_tier: operative
obligations:
- id: fnma-sel-b3-5.2-01-full
  canonical_id: fnma-sel-b3-5.2-01-full
  section: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-5.2-01 — Requirements for Credit Reports
  type: do
  tags:
  - regulator-direct
  - fnma
  - selling-guide
  - corpus-expansion
  - tier-operative
  primary_source:
    tier: 1
    authority: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-5.2-01 — Requirements for Credit Reports
    source_class: fnma-guide
    source_url: https://singlefamily.fanniemae.com/media/document/pdf/selling-guide
    snapshot_id: 5f7b8b79da595d76
    fetched_at: '2026-05-25T14:09:57Z'
    content_hash: sha256:98cf85a02861bbe84914a0e339b327c8fc131869a8a573882007bbeea60c5701
    paragraph_quote: 'B3-5.2-01, Requirements for Credit Reports (11/05/2025) Introduction
      This topic describes requirements for credit reports, including: Overview General
      Requirements Public Records Information Acceptable and Unacceptable Changes
      Required Creditor Information Published May 6, 2026 459 Format for Reporting
      Payment History Inquiries Unreported Debts Assessing Borrower Credit Management
      Skills Credit Report Requirements in Desktop Underwriter Credit Score Requirements
      Overview The lender must obtain a credit report for each borrower on the loan
      application who has an individual credit record. The credit report must be based
      on data provided by the national credit repositories. Acceptable credit report
      formats are described in B3-5.2-02, Types of Credit Reports. For credit report
      requirements in DU see below. A nontraditional mortgage credit report or other
      form of alternative credit veriﬁcation may be used if the borrower does not
      have suﬃcient credit to enable the development of a credit score, or does not
      use the type of credit that is reported to credit repositories. See Section
      B3-5.4, Nontraditional Credit History for additional information. General Requirements
      Credit reports must meet the following general requirements: The report must
      include both credit and public record information for each borrower. The report
      must include all discovered credit and legal information that is not considered
      obsolete under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Although the Fair Credit Reporting
      Act currently speciﬁes that credit information is not considered obsolete until
      after seven years, and bankruptcy information after ten years, Fannie Mae requires
      only a seven-year history to be reviewed for all credit and public record information.
      The report must be an original report, with no erasures, white-outs, or alterations.
      An automated credit report or one that is transmitted by fax is considered to
      be an “original” report. The report must include the full name, address, and
      telephone number of the credit reporting agency, as well as the names of the
      national repositories that the agency used to provide information for the report.
      The credit reporting agency must make responsive statements about all items
      on the credit report—indicating “unable to verify” or “employer refused to verify,”
      when appropriate. Public Records Information The report must include all available
      public records information, identify the sources of the public records information,
      and disclose whether any judgments, foreclosures, tax liens, or bankruptcies
      were discovered (with these adverse items reported in accordance with the Fair
      Credit Reporting Act and to the extent reported by consumer reporting agencies
      participating in the National Consumer Assistance Plan). Published May 6, 2026
      460 Acceptable and Unacceptable Changes Collected credit report information
      should not be changed. However, it is permissible to delete duplicate information,
      translate codes to plain language, and make appropriate adjustments to resolve
      conﬂicting information to ensure the clarity of the report. The following types
      of changes are unacceptable: deleting tradelines that pertain to a borrower’s
      bankruptcy, adding a payment amount to a creditor’s tradeline when the creditor
      does not require a payment, or restricting information collection to a shorter
      time period than Fannie Mae requires. Credit repositories should only change
      the information called to its attention by a creditor or a party that is not
      associated with either the real estate sale or purchase transaction or the mortgage
      ﬁnancing. Required Creditor Information For each debt listed, the report must
      provide: the creditor’s name, the date the account was opened, the amount of
      the highest credit, the current status of the account, the required payment
      amount, the unpaid balance, and a payment history. The report must indicate
      the dates that accounts were last updated with the creditors. Each account with
      a balance must have been checked with the creditor within 90 days of the date
      of the credit report. Format for Reporting Payment History All data must be
      presented in a format that is easy to read and that is understandable without
      the need for code translations. The report must list the historical status of
      each account. This status must be presented in a “number of times past due”
      format and include the dates of the delinquencies. The preferred format is “0
      x 30, 0 x 60, 0 x 90 days” late. The following formats are also acceptable:
      “Rl, R2, R3, …,” if it also gives historical negative ratings, such as “was
      R3 in 6/05.” a consecutive numbering sequence, such as “0001000 …,” provided
      the meaning is clear from the report. Statements such as “current,” “satisfactory,”
      or “as agreed” are not satisfactory by themselves. Inquiries Published May 6,
      2026 461 The report must generate an inquiry that will appear on future credit
      reports and must list all inquiries that were made in the previous 90 days.
      Unreported Debts If the credit report does not include a reference for each
      signiﬁcant open debt on the application, the lender must obtain a separate written
      veriﬁcation for each unreported debt. The lender also needs to verify separately
      accounts listed as “will rate by mail only” or “need written authorization.”
      Assessing Borrower Credit Management Skills The borrower’s credit management
      skills can be assessed by analyzing repayment patterns, credit utilization,
      and level of experience in using credit. Credit Report Requirements in Desktop
      Underwriter Lenders are required to request a three in-ﬁle merged credit report
      from one of the credit information providers listed on Fannie Mae''s website.
      The credit report used by DU in the ﬁnal loan caseﬁle submission must be maintained
      in the mortgage loan ﬁle. A DU observation message will identify all of the
      credit reports evaluated by DU during the loan submission. The version of the
      credit report received by DU must meet the requirements in this topic and be
      one that supports trended credit data. Trended credit data is expanded information
      on a borrower’s credit history at a tradeline level on several monthly factors,
      including: amount owed, minimum payment, and payment made. Note: To obtain a
      credit report that is compatible with DU loan caseﬁle requirements, the borrower''s
      present address must be within the U.S. or U.S. territories, with the exception
      of an Army Post Oﬃce (APO), Fleet Post Oﬃce (FPO), or Diplomatic Post Oﬃce (DPO)
      military address. Borrowers with foreign credit reports must be manually underwritten.
      See Foreign Credit Reports and Credit Scores in B3-5.1-02, Determining the Credit
      Score for a Mortgage Loan for additional information. Credit Score Requirements
      See B3-5.1-01, General Requirements for Credit Scores, for additional information
      about credit report requirements related to credit scores. Recent Related Announcements
      The table below provides references to recently issued Announcements that are
      related to this topic. Announcements Issue Date Announcement SEL-2025-09 November
      05, 2025 Published May 6, 2026 462 Announcements Issue Date Announcement SEL-2023-07
      August 02, 2023 Announcement SEL-2023-05 June 07, 2023 Announcement SEL-2022-01
      February 02, 2022'
  judgment: false
