It may surprise you but this story points the finger at Martin Eakes and the Self-Help Credit Union.  From Foxnews.com:

So it is important that people be reminded of the facts.  And Congress needs to look into the whole sorry mess, and in a way that is designed to get at the truth, not shield the wrongdoers. They could begin by looking at the establishment, in 1994, of the Home Loan Secondary Market Program by a group called the Self-Help Credit Union.

The HLSMP’s stated purpose is to help people who don’t have enough assets to qualify for traditional mortage financing get a home anyway.  This, in and of itself I suppose, is a worthy enough goal.  But Self-Help then turned around and sold those mortgages in the securities markets to investors — which in turn gave banks access to new funds so they could make additional loans.

The Self-Help Credit Union, of course, created the Center for Responsible Lending.