Some weeks ago I read that Wells Fargo was going to go outside of recent lending SOP by holding more mortgages in house. They were also going to lower down payment requirements, which would only be possible if they moved away for dependence on the secondary market (where orginators sell mortgages). By keeping more morgages in house, they remove much of their business from federal and quaisi federal oversight.

Now Wells Fargo just announced they will lower down payment requirements too.

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_25200954/wells-fargo-lowers-credit-scores-fha-loans?utm_source=NEWZ%3A+Wells+Fargo+lowers+FICO+scores%2FDeadbeat+AMCs+coming%2FWho%27s+busy%3F&utm_campaign=at+1-31-12&utm_medium=email

What's this mean?

1) Congress was too eager to have everyone own a home, while federally insured mortgages (and/or other governmentally facilitated loans) made money far to easy to get. This casused former mortgage lenders to become little more than brokers operating between borrowers and government. The real estate blow-up was foreseeable, and a natural consequence of making mortgages far too easy to get.

2) Now that the old system is proving a block to the real estate and general economic recovery, lenders are finding that the old system wasn't so bad after all - get the Feds out of the way and we all benefit. That Wells Fargo will be holding these mortgages means they are self insuring, instead of passing the risk to goverment. Makes sense, no?

Wells Fargo is starting a trend that will help accelerate us into a new phase of the business cycle. Perhaps the trend will eventually extend to miners as well. The market just needs to find a way around federal banking oversight in it's present form. ...all in my opinion, of course.

VP in AZ