The two have petitioned Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to designate Fannie and Freddie as SIFIs. Being an SIFI means the two would be subject to higher capital standards and greater scrutiny – as though the two aren’t under enough scrutiny as it is.

Borrow short and lend long? Is there a problem with that? Don't tell that to Jamie Dimon of JPM.

One mortgage technology expert had this to say on the Ellie Mae shutdown: “This is going to get ugly. Real money is lost when you can’t close loans on time.”

“Bank, nonbank – it doesn’t matter to us. We look at where the risk to the consumer is and we try to execute our program against that,” said Peggy Twohig, assistant director in the CFPB’s Office of Supervision Policy.

A group called The 60 Plus Association has released TV and radio ads in seven states targeting Senate Banking Committee Members who are sponsoring GSE reform legislation. The group claims the bills “allow the government to take over the mortgage industry in an action 'disturbingly similar' to Obamacare.”

One executive, requesting his name not be used, said, “It completely wrecked our last day of the month. We were unable to sending closing packages, send disclosures, export files and such.”

Most industry fortune tellers expect the mortgage market to rebound somewhat as home-buying season warms up. (There are daffodils in Washington.)

One source familiar with Ellie Mae told IMFnews that the technology provider has a long list of potential acquisitions.

The CFPB and five other federal financial regulators issued a proposed rule last week that would implement minimum requirements for state registration and supervision of appraisal management companies. The minimum requirements would apply to states that voluntarily elect to establish an appraiser certifying and licensing agency with the authority to register and supervise AMCs. Under the proposed rule, participating states would require that an AMC register in the state and be subject to its supervision, and use only state-certified or licensed appraisers for federally related transactions, such as real estate-related financial transactions overseen by a federal financial institution regulatory agency that require appraiser services.

Nearly a quarter (24 percent) of all purchase loans funded by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a debt-to-income ratio greater than the qualified mortgage limit of 43 percent, according to the February 2014 National Mortgage Risk Index released by the conservative American Enterprise Institute’s International Center on Housing Risk. Researchers found no discernible impact on the purchase loan market from the CFPB’s QM regulation.“In February, half of agency loans had a down payment of 5 percent or less, nearly one-in-four agency loans had a DTI ratio greater than 43 percent, and one-in-eight agency loans had a FICO score of less than 660,” the AEI said.