Big banks aren’t ramping up enough staff to process a surge of loan applications, according to recent coverage from Reuters — a trend that “()

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The reason? Skittishness. Lenders don’t appear convinced that the recent rally in mortgage lending is sustainable — or at least, not sustainable long enough to justify committing to the new hires needed to process all those loan applications.

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Bloomberg last week took an in-depth look at how a lack of competition in the lending market, combined with sky-high returns on mortgage lending thanks to the Fed’s recent efforts, have led industry stalwarts like JPMorgan Chase (JPM) to double its typical margins in the mortgage lending business. 

Which means it’s a great time to be big, and to be a big lender.

At least some at the Fed appear to be taking note.

New York Federal Reserve president William Dudley took direct aim at current market dynamics in a speech last week, saying that the Fed’s MBS purchase sprees during QE, QE2, and now QE3 “()

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