It will be difficult to tell whether the Dodd-Frank Act is driving waves of small lenders out of the mortgage market or whether a severe drought in new production is an equally weighty factor, but community lenders may be gaining some ground among policymakers. At a hearing in the House Financial Services Committee this week, Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, read at some length from a letter he received from a small mortgage banker in central Texas who said his firm is being forced out of the market because of the cost and complexity of regulatory compliance. The major culprit is the wave of mortgage regulations imposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the Dodd-Frank Act. Hensarling did not reveal the company’s name. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, who chairs the Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee, reiterated...