WAMU beats up on brokers. Doesn’t everybody?

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News item from today’s LATimes: ‘ ... the chief executive of the nation’s largest savings and loan, saying lending standards became irrationally lax in recent years, is supporting stricter professional requirements for mortgage brokers. ‘They should have something like stockbrokers -- licensing, testing, higher standards,’ Washington Mutual Inc. Chief Executive Kerry Killinger said in a recent interview.’

First take: Makes perfect sense. It’s a no-brainer. It’s also easy for WAMU to suggest stricter requirements for a separate corner of the financial industry.

Second take: It’s a disappointing way for WAMU to enter the conversation. How about volunteering a few ways that it will reform its own business? In our naive, hopeful, ‘Charlie Brown-is-finally-going-to-kick-the-football-this-time’ kind of way, we are hungry for some real leadership on the entire issue of mortgage lending. Disclosure, for example, is a joke -- it’s confusing at best, misleading at worst. WAMU is in a unique position to provide leadership: it will likely have a much bigger role in the mortgage business two years from now than it did two years ago. That said, we do not consider this leadership.

Third take: We’d be ecstatic if someone would prove us wrong and show us some real leadership on the issue. Wouldn’t that be a day-brightener?

Thoughts? Comments? Email story tips to lalandblog@yahoo.com.