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Anatomy of a Train Wreck (PDF)
...What was the impact of this attack on traditional
underwriting standards? As you might guess, when
government regulators bark, banks jump. Banks
began to loosen lending standards. And loosen and
loosen and loosen, to the cheers of the politicians,
regulators, and GSEs.

One of the banks that jumped most completely
on to this bandwagon was Countrywide, which used
its efforts to lower underwriting standards “on behalf”
of minorities (and everyone else) to catapult
itself to become the leading mortgage lender in the
nation. Countrywide not only made more loans
to minorities than any other lender, it also had the
highest consumer satisfaction among large mortgage
lenders, according to J.D. Power and Associates.5
Testimonials to Countrywide’s virtue abound....