To call it an uneasy alliance is too simple, but that’s exactly what the characters were going for when they called their morning press conference in downtown DC.

The new president of the Mortgage Bankers Association, Dave Stevens, arrived carrying a message from Wall Street and Main Street money makers in the breast pocket of his navy blue suit; he was seated in a row just down from Ethan Handelman of the National Housing Conference, who sported a pony tail and an agenda favoring low-income borrowers.

In between them was Ken Edwards, of the Center for Responsible Lending, who referred to the group as, “an eclectic mix.”

Adversity makes strange bedfellows, and today’s mortgage market is nothing short of adverse. The group came together to argue against what Edwards called “draconian requirements” for a the proposed “Qualified Residential Mortgage” (QRM) standard. The QRM is part of new risk retention rules, mandated by the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform legislation of last year. The proposal, which is under comment period until the end of next week, includes a 20 percent down payment for a home loan to qualify as a QRM. If the loan does not meet the QRM standards, the lender must hold on to 5 percent of the risk.

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