Two major subprime lenders, Argent Mortgage and CitiFinancial, say they have raised the bar for the industry with recent changes to their lending practices. “We believe that setting higher standards for fair mortgage lending practices is vital to the health of the mortgage lending industry,” said Jeff Gillis, Argent’s executive vice president of operations, of a slate of reforms that the company, the wholesale lending unit of Ameriquest Capital Corp., announced last week.