Mortgage Fee Changes Scrapped: 'Responsible Borrower Protection Act of 2025' Keeps Risk-Based Pricing

The 'Responsible Borrower Protection Act of 2025' cancels planned changes to mortgage credit fees and ensures Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can keep using risk-based pricing for single-family home mortgages. Basically, it's hitting the brakes on some fee adjustments announced in January 2023 (specifically, Federal National Mortgage Association Lender Letter LL202301 and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation Bulletin 20231) and keeping things as they were.

Fee Fixes Frozen

The core of this bill is straightforward: those fee changes floated by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) last year? They're not happening. This means the way Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge for mortgages will stay the same, sticking with the risk-based pricing model they've been using.

The Risk Remains

This bill is all about maintaining the status quo in how mortgage risk is assessed and priced. Risk-based pricing means borrowers with different credit profiles pay different fees. In theory, lower-risk borrowers might get a better deal, while higher-risk borrowers face higher costs. For example, someone with a stellar credit score and a large down payment might pay lower fees than a first-time homebuyer with a smaller down payment and a few blemishes on their credit report. Section 3 allows Fannie and Freddie to continue using this approach.

Real-World Rollout

For folks in the housing market, this means the lending landscape won't shift as some might have expected. Lenders keep their current risk assessment tools, which could be good or bad, depending on your credit situation. It avoids potential disruptions from the scrapped fee changes, but also means that any problems people had with the old system stick around. The bill does not introduce any new transparency requirements, so the details of how these fees are calculated remain largely behind the scenes. This lack of transparency could be a challenge for some borrowers trying to understand their mortgage costs.

Sticking with the Status Quo

The 'Responsible Borrower Protection Act of 2025' is essentially a move to preserve the existing system. It cancels changes that might have made mortgages more affordable for some, but less so for others. Whether you were set to win or lose under those now-canceled changes, this bill keeps things just as they were before the FHFA tried to shake things up.