A prime mortgage lender is a lender, who primarily caters to consumers with good credit scores of 650 or above, whether they need a home purchase loan, home equity loan or HELOC loan. Some prime lenders also provide subprime loan products.
You might be wondering how this relates to subprime lending. Well, subprime lending came into existence because of lack of trust. Large banks did not trust certain individuals enough to take them on as customers and or to lend them money. In fact, studies have shown that half of UK’s adult population fell in this category. The reason may have been virtually anything – these people may have low or no income, they may have defaulted on previous loans, they may have moved house too often, they may be new to the country or even that they may not have any previous loans. The banks thought that if you had borrowed previously and made regular repayments, then you were a good borrower – no matter how much you owed. No one cared if you had managed your money well and never had the need to borrow. Such is the irony of a credit accustomed society. The cause is also simple – banks had enough “usual” or in other words prime customers to keep them profitable (yes, that’s what they thought) that they did not need to create new processes, checks and procedures to acquire and maintain “unusual” customers. Instead, they believed it to be simpler and wiser to invest in or lend to companies, either directly or indirectly, who lend to these “unusual” customers.
What is a FICO Score? Your FICO score ranges from 300 to 850, with 300 being the lowest credit score you can have. One assumption is that the more debt you have (e.g. numerous credit cards), the more likely you are to pay your bills late. Late bill payment is the number one reason for a majority of low credit scores. This factor accounts for 35% of your credit score.
The question remains – can you still trust the subprime customer? If you remove the issues that caused the crisis i.e. the delinking of risk and reward due to misaligned incentives, then the answer may still surprisingly be yes. You can take a look at examples like BrightHouse and Provident to see that money can still be made. What is now more difficult is to prove it to the investors and warehouse line providers. That is visible from some of the share price movements. Provident has swung between 963 pence/ share and 655 pence/share in the last year. Cattles has seen itself touch both 299 pence/share and 9.61 pence/ share in the same year. What differentiates the real profit making subprime enterprises from the unprofitable ones? If you are thinking about it rest assured that you are not the only one. The FSA has thought about it as well. And they have thought about it very hard since Northern Rock became too heavy to remain afloat. You need to take a close look at FSA’s risk assessment framework, appropriately named ARROW (Advanced, Risk -Responsive Operating Framework), to see what I mean. The ARROW risk model provides an overview of how inherent business risks, front line controls and governance arrangements interact within a firm or a group, leading to an overall assessment of net Risk. You will have risks because of the Environment and the Business Model. You can successfully mitigate or reduce these using Front Line Controls, Oversight & Governance and by maintaining Excess Capital & Liquidity. Based on this, ARROW has divided the different risks into 10 separate risk groups as can be seen below:
I knew that there were some crazy loan products available, but check this out: “The sub-prime market was designed with a built-in time bomb. In testimony to the Senate Banking Committee in September, Michael Calhoun, the President of the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), showed an example of the most typical sub-prime loan, known as a 2/28, with an “exploding ARM” (adjustable rate mortgage). Buyers can qualify for this type of loan if the original (“teaser”) monthly payment is not higher than 61% of their after-tax income. At the end of two years, even without a rise in interest rates, the payment will typically rise to 96% of the purchaser’s monthly income. No wonder then, that the study conservatively forecasts that one-third of families who received a sub-prime loan in 2005 and 2006 will ultimately lose their homes!”
Learn more about Obama Mortgage Relief Plan Qualifications.