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CDS also allow particular credit risks to be hedged, as an entity can purchase protection from many sources of credit risk, much like an insurance policy. While total notional value related to CDS are enormous (estimated between $25–$50 trillion), the true exposure related to that notional value is approximately $2.5-$3.0 trillion.
Subprime loans have a higher risk of default than loans to prime borrowers. [108] If a borrower is delinquent in making timely mortgage payments to the loan servicer (a bank or other financial firm), the lender may take possession of the property, in a process called foreclosure .
The United States Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (commonly referred to as HERA) was designed primarily to address the subprime mortgage crisis.It authorized the Federal Housing Administration to guarantee up to $300 billion in new 30-year fixed rate mortgages for subprime borrowers if lenders wrote down principal loan balances to 90 percent of current appraisal value.
Because subprime mortgages are for borrowers with low credit scores, these loans raise risk for the lender. To make up for that risk, the lender charges higher interest rates and fees than you ...
One study, by a legal firm which counsels financial services entities on Community Reinvestment Act compliance, found that CRA-covered institutions were less likely to make subprime loans (only 20–25% of all subprime loans), and when they did the interest rates were lower. The banks were half as likely to resell the loans to other parties. [114]
Critics dispute the Federal Reserve's use of interest rates to distinguish prime from subprime loans. They say that subprime loan estimates based on use of the high-interest-rate proxy are distorted because government programs generally promote low-interest rate loans – even when the loans are to borrowers who are clearly subprime. [39 ...
Subprime I was smaller in size — in the mid-1990s $30 billion of mortgages constituted "a big year" for subprime lending, by 2005 there were $625 billion in subprime mortgage loans, $507 billion of which were in mortgage backed securities — and was essentially "really high rates for borrowers with bad credit".
Subprime lending standards declined in the U.S.: in early 2000, a subprime borrower had a FICO score of 660 or less. By 2005, many lenders dropped the required FICO score to 620, making it much easier to qualify for prime loans and making subprime lending a riskier business. Proof of income and assets were de-emphasized.