Spring Baseball: Regulators 10, Industry 0

On Thursday afternoon Congress will hold a hearing on the 'qualified residential mortgage' test and what it means for the industry and the world at large. But if you think Congress or banking regulators will cut lenders any slack on the 20% downpayment measurement, you can forget about it. Since the financial crisis began, Washington has done few favors when it comes to regulatory details for rank-and-file mortgage bankers. On the QRM test the industry is a loser. On the broker/loan officer compensation rule the industry is a loser (so are consumers, from what I'm told). When warehouse credit to nonbanks almost dried up two years ago, Washington stood by and watched. I could go on and on. Almost everything Washington has done is aid the megabanks at the expense of nondepositories. Treasury bailed out the megabanks during the height of the financial crisis, committing $700 billion in taxpayer money — to help mostly the big boys. Washington granted relief on mark-to-market accounting for troubled loans. Oh wait, that aids mostly the megabanks too. And the concept of too-big-to-fail? Washington ended all that. Yeah right. And The New York Mets will win the World Series this year…