US moves to halt junk home loans that fed crisis

The US issued new rules Thursday restricting the kind of high-risk and abusive home loans at the centre of the housing collapse that left millions losing their homes to repossession. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) set regulations which forbid lenders from granting mortgages to buyers who are not in the position to repay the loan, requiring strong documentation and basic income-to-loan ratios. The rules also restrict lenders from offering inducements to borrowers to overextend themselves while protecting the lenders themselves if the borrower defaults. Both issues were hallmarks of the 2006 implosion of the housing market that left millions unable to pay their mortgages and sparked the near-collapse of the US financial industry, with the government forced to prop up or rescue a number of major institutions. The economy still suffers from the property crash, with more than 10 per cent of all home loans in default and foreclosure, though the market has strengthened somewhat in the past year. "To put it simply: lenders should not set up consumers to fail," CFPB director Richard Cordray said in a statement. "When consumers sit down at the closing table, they shouldn't be set up to fail with mortgages they can't afford." "Our ability-to-repay rule protects borrowers from the kinds of risky lending practices that resulted in so many families losing their homes. This common-sense rule ensures responsible borrowers get responsible loans." The new rules require banks to fully document a borrower's financial status -- his income, debts, and other assets and obligations -- to show that the borrower can pay back the loan. "This means that lenders can no longer offer no-doc, low-doc loans, where lenders made quick sales by not requiring documentation, then offloaded these risky mortgages by selling them to investors," the CFPB said. In addition, the lender cannot bait borrowers with "teaser" loan rates that hide the true long-term cost of a mortgage. The housing bubble that built up for years before the 2006 collapse was constructed in part on borrowers being offered extremely low, affordable interest rates at the beginning but which later ballooned to levels borrowers had no hope of paying. The CFPB also established a new category of "qualified mortgages" which meet basic standards of soundness and simplicity, including a maximum debt-to-income ratio for the borrower of 43 per cent. While lenders will not be forced to issue such loans, the aim was to set a standard that would be required by financial investors in mortgages and mortgage securities -- particularly the powerful state-controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which dominate the mortgage securitisation industry. Banks which adhere to the qualified mortgage standard will have greater protection from lawsuits. The rules take effect on January 10, 2014.