The federal government has tried to significantly increase regulation of the financial services industry in the past several years, and nowhere has this been more apparent than when it comes to mortgages. However, some efforts to increase controls on this aspect of the lending sector have occasionally hit a roadblock or two, and that certainly seems to have been what happened with a recent proposal from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The FHFA – which oversees the government-sponsored mortgage-backing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – asked for comment earlier this year about the ways in which it might change some types of mortgage fees, according to a report from MarketWatch. However, the push-back on such a move has been vociferous, and has interestingly come from two sides that have often been at loggerheads where mortgages are concerned over the last few years: Lenders and consumer advocates.

What's the problem with those increases?
Specifically, Fannie and Freddie might soon increase "g-fees," which are essentially credit guarantee fees charged to lenders based on mortgage risk, but are then passed on to the consumer, the report said. As such, the concern is relatively obvious for all parties involved: Consumer advocacy groups simply don't want the mortgage process to be any more costly than it has to be, and lenders are worried about the potential negative impact that adding as much as a few thousand dollars to up-front borrowing costs might have on originations going forward. These are actually seen as being particularly onerous because, some say, the FHFA doesn't really seem to have come up with a sufficiently justifiable reason for increasing them.

"To impose such an additional cost to … borrowers, especially to those who are creditworthy and seeking to enter to re-enter the housing market at this time, would not be equitable or prudent," Benjamin Lawsky, financial services superintendent for New York state, wrote to the FHFA, according to the site. "Such additional costs could damage the housing market in New York and hamper the housing recovery by increasing the cost of home ownership and making credit less available for otherwise credit worthy borrowers."

Mortgage lenders will certainly have to keep a close eye on these changes going forward, because any regulatory changes they face could end up having a massive impact on the ways in which they do business going forward.