Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Is this what you really want?

If banks are allowed to hold less capital against mortgages than against loans to SMEs and entrepreneurs… something that they are allowed now.

Then banks can leverage their equity, and the support they receive from society, by for instance deposit insurance schemes, much more with mortgages than with loans to SMEs and entrepreneurs. 

And then banks will earn higher ex ante perceived risk adjusted returns on equity when lending to those buying houses than when lending to those who can generate the next generation of jobs.

And then banks will lend more to home buying than to job creation.

And then the citizens are doomed to end up sitting in expensive houses, with low salary jobs or no jobs at all to pay their utilities and their mortgages with.

Is this really what you want?