Yes, there are federal manadates to banks that is way Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act. You have to have x amount of loans given to minorities and the banks are graded. The banks have been losing money on this program. They have tried to soften their losses by hiding the mortages into other things, but that is running out.
To be honest there are some people that should not get a loan to buy something. There were very tough guidelines in place but someone came up with that idea that it was not fair to the lower income people. Then the Federal guidelines change to make the playing field more fair.
The banks that are still doing good are the ones that were able to do other loans and keep the subplime loans at a low percentage.

I never said I know everything but I have enough sense to start looking for reasons. To believe that a government full of corrupt people are looking out for your best interest is insane. I also do not think banks or any other business looks out for anyone interest other than their own. They are in place to make money.
Staying out of debt is very important.