A decade ago, Brian Koss was a senior vice president at Countrywide Financial who saw firsthand how big lenders muscled out small ones during the housing boom by cutting special deals with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Now, as a senior executive at a midsize lender, he says a positive outcome from the bust is that government policies have mostly leveled the playing field.

U.S. lawmakers largely agree they want to keep it that way. But finding consensus on how to do it could be a sticking point in the latest effort to overhaul the housing-finance system.

On Thursday, a key Senate committee held a hearing on the nation's system for funding home loans that featured small lenders. It's the third housing-finance hearing held by the Senate Banking Committee this year as Congress takes another stab at figuring out a long-term solution for Fannie and Freddie, which underpin nearly half the mortgage market. The companies have been under the government's control since the 2008 financial crisis.

Small lenders are seen as pivotal to the debate because some lawmakers are adamant that consumers and taxpayers benefit when such firms are active in the mortgage market. Small lenders argue that they provide better and more personal service than their bigger rivals. And some policymakers worry that increased market dominance by mega banks will enhance their status as being too big to fail.

"For all of its faults, the current system does provide access to small lenders," said Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, the banking panel's top Democrat.

Fannie and Freddie don't make loans themselves but buy them from lenders, wrap them into securities and make guarantees to investors in case the loans default. The companies became a flash point of the financial crisis, after being thrown a $187.5 billion federal bailout as the housing market cratered. To reduce the government's role in the mortgage market, Congress has tried but failed to pass legislation over the past decade that would overhaul or wind them down.

While small lender groups agree that the mortgage market isn't in need of a dramatic shake up, the Independent Community Bankers of America and the Community Mortgage Lenders of America say releasing the companies without congressional action would be a mistake.

That's because they want requirements that Fannie and Freddie provide equal pricing enshrined in legislation.

Joe Light writes for Bloomberg.