Liberty Financial yesterday advised business development managers and originators that they must "smooth" settlements and also book settlements 30 days in advance.The action is the latest in a series of changes by lenders dependent on the debt capital market for funding, and in particular affecting those specialising in non-conforming loans.Bluestone Mortgage recently introduced caps on loan to valuation ratios. Some customers previously approved were then denied funding, though Bluestone said only a few customers were affected. In an email to business development managers yesterday Liberty wrote that "to assist in forward planning, settlement levels will be smoothed" and that "in most cases, pending settlements will be scheduled one month in advance." Liberty said it would give priority  to users of its LoanNET platform, which automates many aspects of the underwriting and settlement process.James Boyle, Liberty's general manager, mortgages, said yesterday: "There are two aspects to the uncertainty [in debt capital markets]. One is price and the other is liquidity."We're regulating money that we put to work while we haven't got certainty in pricing. We don't want to be in a position where we're putting large volumes of money to work and not knowing the rate we are paying."Until there's a term deal done in the specialty space you really don't have a reference point. As you've seen in the last couple of weeks there's a bit of activity in the prime space, so there's some reference points."But there's not really a reference point for specialty RMBS for specialty purposes."Liberty did sell a pool of $235 million of bonds secured by commercial mortgages a couple of weeks ago.