Lending practices
Lessons can be learnt from the poor lending practices in the United States that triggered the global financial crisis. Systematic poor practices involved lenders providing loans to consumers who had no reasonable prospect of being able to meet their loan repayment obligations. In many cases, mortgage brokers completed loan application forms for consumers that misleadingly or fraudulently overstated the consumer’s income and assets. As a result, many defaulted on their loans. The housing market was flooded by foreclosure sales, which drove down housing prices to a level where banks were unable to recover monies for the outstanding loans. Poor regulatory oversight created the environment in which these bad lending practices were able to flourish.