Mortgage Brokers - Endangered Species?

Some of the largest home loan sources in the country are cutting back loans through mortgage brokers. In the case of Bank of America, they may not be using brokers at all in the future.

Wells Fargo, in announcing a $1.4 billion dollar write-down for bad mortgage and home equity loans is reducing their loans through brokers also, according to this quote from the article: "The company, which is also the fifth-largest U.S. bank, said it also was significantly scaling back making home equity loans through brokers, citing a need to tighten lending standards and reduced demand from investors to buy the loans."

It is easy to pass the blame for poor lending practices down to brokers, but it doesn't all belong there. The other factor influencing these decisions is probably the Internet, as shown in this chart at Transparent RE.