...How Business Ethics Relates to Subprime Mortgage Market By Wanda Thibodeaux, eHow Contributor Many people have lost their homes as a result of unethical suprime mortgage practices. The ability to have a home of your own in the United States typically depends on your ability to repay a mortgage, since most Americans don't purchase their homes outright. Because not everyone has perfect credit, a section of the mortgage industry involves subprime loans. In the wake of the mortgage and foreclosure crisis that began in 2007, the ethics of those in the industry is under scrutiny. Other People Are Reading How Do Subprime Loans Affect Business Growth? Code of Ethics for Business in the Philippines Print this article Subprime Mortgage Definition A definition of subprime mortgage is necessary to understand the relationship between the industry and ethics. Subprime mortgages are mortgage loans lenders provide only to those whose credit disqualifies them from receiving the best (prime) interest rates a lender can offer. A subprime mortgage by definition means that lenders work with those with a lesser ability to pay. Roughly 25 percent of all mortgages are subprime, according to Thomas Kostigen of the Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch website. Fiduciary Duties and Ethical Problems Businesses typically operate under fiduciary duties, or obligations. These fall into two broad categories of loyalty and care. These duties essentially stipulate that a businessperson should...
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...Business Research Ethics Paper Wayne Bell University of Phoenix RES/351 Business Research Robert Caldwell July 24, 2015 The Goldman Sachs Case When we think of the word ethics, we think of rules and regulations to keep us honest or to know the difference between right and wrong. Another way of defining ‘ethics’ focuses on the disciplines that study standards of conduct, such as philosophy, theology, law, psychology, or sociology” (Resnik, 2011). Considered by many economists to be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the financial crisis of 2007 was primarily due to the collapse of the housing industries subprime mortgage market. Residential mortgage-backed securities are commonly issued bonds that are backed by thousands of residential real estate mortgages. The Goldman Sachs case was comprised of subprime mortgages. Most business organization possess a mission statement, a code of ethics or rules to follow to be able to limit the ethical issues that may arise within the Institution, Goldman Sachs did not have any of these. In exploring ethical behavior in the banking and financial institutions whose sole existent is to increase profits through the sale of consumer loans. In 2005, the banking industry started issuing subprime mortgage loans to consumers regardless of their income qualification. “The collapse in prices precipitated the collapse in banking profits, prompting a call...
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...Economic effects of subprime lending A subprime lending is an option for individuals that have difficulty meeting mortgage payment schedules or for individuals who have low credit scores and considered risky borrowers. For example, an applicant with a low credit score of 500 will have a very difficult time locating a loan. Subprime lending comes with a high cost to borrowers. Lenders see bad credit applicants as riskier than applicants with better credit scores. Borrowers in turn pay for this risk by accepting loans with a higher interest rate. Subprime lenders offered the realization of the American dream of home ownership to borrowers who would otherwise be denied credit. Interest only loan options were offered, and combined with the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) added so much liquidity that in turn created a housing boom. Over time borrowers end up paying higher interest rates with zero payment application against their loan amount. Unemployment setbacks that ultimately resulted in defaults, added to the economic crisis. Consequently, more homes were placed in a market that is already saturated with newly constructed homes. This created less demand resulting to more houses that builders were unable to sell. Controls of banking rules and regulations during the 1980’s were relaxed, and monitoring policies for these were not the highest priority. Jimmy Carter’s “Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980” was a window for financial institutions...
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...Case Study : Lehman Brother’s Demise of Lehman Brothers Lehman Brother’s demise was the event that gripped the US financial system into shock. It was the fourth largest investment firm in the US as of 2007 with 25,000 employees worldwide. The Firm had an exponential growth and recognized profits from 2005 to 2006 and in 2007 reported a net income of $4.2 billion dollars on revenues of 19.3 billion. The stock price of the company reached all-time high when it hit $86.18 per share. Lehman increased 56% in its revenues only from the subprime mortgage business alone. While the company kept reaping benefits, the real estate market in the US started to show signs of pending bubble burst. In March 2007 stock market experienced biggest drop in 5 years and mortgage defaults rose up to the highest percentage in almost a decade. Investors were confident with their money as they were satisfied with Lehman’s financial statements and their past resilience with depressions. According to NyTimes “Lehman never publicly disclosed its use of Repo 105 transactions, its accounting treatment for these transactions, the considerable escalation of its total Repo 105 usage in late 2007 and into 2008, or the material impact these transactions had on the firm’s publicly reported net leverage ratio.” Later when Lehman was exposed of their use of accounting gimmicks to mislead the investors. This led the investors to lose confidence in Lehman brothers. Investors started dumping their stocks while other...
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...Abstract This paper investigates the unethical practices of mortgage brokers, spurred on by an overzealous government, that have resulted in the collapse of the housing market and the subsequent decline of the American economy. It also reviews the proper role of subprime mortgages in the market as well as an analysis of the systemic effects of the subprime mortgage market on the global economy. Introduction The problem to be investigated is how the subprime loan market influenced the market collapse of 2008. The unethical practices of mortgage brokers, spurred on by an overzealous government, resulted in the collapse of the housing market and the subsequent decline of the American economy. This in turn affected worldwide markets and has led to instability throughout the world as countries scramble to shore up their economies with loans and bailouts. Ethics of Subprime Mortgage Brokers While the ethics of subprime mortgage brokers can certainly be questioned, they cannot take the brunt of the blame for the crisis that befell the economy beginning in 2007-2008. Economist Lawrence White attributes the financial collapse of 2008 with the political effort to expand home ownership to those people who were not qualified under traditional market constraints (Yandle, 2010, p.346). Nevertheless, the attractiveness of the subprime loan market to brokers cannot be denied as the significant growth of that market between the years of 1994 and 2008 was accompanied by an increase...
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...Legal issues concerning sub-prime mortgage lenders Outline I. Introduction II. Subprime History III. What lead to subprime lenders making unethical and illegal decisions IV. What safe guards are in place V. Conclusions VI. Works cited page Introduction When most people hear the phrase “subprime lending”, the first thoughts that come to mind are the mortgage meltdown; predatory lenders, high interest mortgages for borrowers who have poor credit or low incomes. All of these thoughts may be true to a certain extent, but contrary to popular belief subprime mortgage lending has helped expand homeownership for all borrowers regardless of credit or income level in the US between 1995 and 2006 (Favro, 07). The problem is that this ethical and legal lending market took an unethical and illegal turn and has been cited as one of the contributing factors that aided in many Americans defaulting on their home loans that resulted in sending this country and many others into one of the biggest recessions since the Great Depression. It has been almost six years since the subprime meltdown and this country, the housing markets, and the economy have yet to fully recovered. In this research paper I will cover the history and original purpose of subprime lending, what lured the subprime lending market to take an unethical and illegal turn, and what safeguards have been put in place to lessen the likely hood of subprime mortgage lenders making unethical and illegal...
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...JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ISSUES Vol. XLV No. 2 June 2011 DOI 10.2753/JEI0021-3624450213 Banking Ethics and the Goldman Rule John P. Watkins Abstract: Insulating people from the effects of the crisis has left intact the habits of thought and the basic institutional structure. The continued reign of pecuniary values leaves intact the Goldman Rule: pursue profitable opportunities regardless the effects on others. Within a culture dominated by pecuniary values, profitable opportunities present a coercive force. Laissez-faire policies allow profitable pursuits without restraint. Subprime mortgages offered an opportunity to tap a new source of profits, namely, the increase in housing prices. Many financial institutions engaged in unscrupulous actions to convert household wealth into corporate profits. Efforts to reign in the industry remain wanting. Keywords: acquisitive society, banking ethics, banking profits, Goldman Sachs, subprime crisis JEL Classification Codes: A13, B25, B26, D63 The bailout of the banks violates the legitimacy of markets, the ethos that profit represents the reward for success, loss the punishment for failure. The outrage over bailouts combined with insulating people from the effects of the crisis has fostered an anti-interventionist reaction and a resurgence of neoliberalism. Insulating people from the effects of the crisis has largely left intact the habits of thought and the basic institutional structure. The continued reign of pecuniary values leaves...
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...History shows us that after every crisis, e.g the great depression of 1929, economic downturn of 1988, dotcom bubble of 2000, Enron and Worldcom issues, and finally the subprime mortgage crisis, there has been a need to appoint boards which recommended changes mostly pertaining to the accounting areas. Accounting professionals are constrained in providing information from data provided to them. While it is their responsibility to follow Generally Accepted Account Principles (GAAP) accounting standards, they do not have a crystal ball to predict the future, but they should have seen the crisis coming much earlier and played by the ethics rules and standards established by GAAP. Also, there is a caveat in the annual reports which says it is the management teams of entity who are responsible in ensuring integrity of data provided to the accounting professionals. The mortgage subprime crisis was driven by greed at many levels including at the homeowner, broker, lender, banks, and government levels. Accounting professionals should play a role in identifying "the train" and should stop the accident from happening much earlier. Economists, however, are better equipped to do so than the accounting professionals though. They should always play by the rules of the book and always be ethical. On Sun, Jul 7, 2013 at 3:33 PM, raghunath manikyath <rmanikyath@yahoo.com> wrote: + Role of Financial professionals in sub-prime mortgage crisis: Finanicial professionals provide...
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...What role did the Accounting profession play in the recent subprime mortgage crisis? What could they have done differently? There were many factors that led to the subprime mortgage crisis; low interest rates, greedy asset managers, and a booming housing market, to name a few. None were, in my opinion, more responsible for the crisis than the banks (lenders) and buyers (borrower). The banks approved loans for buyers who, one could not afford the loan, nor did not have the credit history to get the loan. Subprime borrowers were tricked into innovative mortgage products such as, 12/24 month adjustable-rate mortgages, interest-only loans, piggy-bank and the notorious negative amortization loans (Denning, 2011). These loans proved to be the catalyst that fueled the crisis in 2006. Accounting professionals played a role in the crisis, however, I feel that it was a small one. I say small due to the fact that, while they are professionals, they are still people. People with families, bills, and other obligations. I think that the pressure of having an employer pay them more because they are making more was a deciding factor for not blowing the whistle on questionable financial practices. The text speaks of ethics and unqualified, or clean opinions. “An unqualified opinion is not a clean bill of health about either the current financial condition or future prospects of the entity”. Knowing this we can surmise then even if the accounting professional did raise the flag on the risky...
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...Defining Subprime Lending The problem to be investigated is the effect of subprime mortgage loans on the economy. According to Merriam Webster subprime is defined as having or being an interest rate that is higher than a prime rate and is extended especially to low-income borrowers; extending or obtaining a subprime loan (Webster, 2012). Subprime mortgage loans are loans given to people with a low credit score. Subprime borrowers normally don’t qualify for prime loans or prime lending. According to Jennings, the subprime mortgage market is defined to include those borrowers with a FICO (Fair Isaac Co.) score below 570 (Jennings, 2012, p. 434). The American Dream Home ownership has always been a big part of the “American Dream.” It allows you to have your piece of “the rock.” It gives one the ability to invest in your community. This need to have a piece of the American dream not only drives the average American to capitalize, it also drives mortgage lenders to take their portion of your dream as well. Initially, this relationship tends to have win/win connotations; however, true colors eventually prevail when dealing in subprime mortgage loans. Subprime Lenders It seems subprime lenders never call themselves just that. You have to be aware of the enormously high prices; prices much higher than your prime lenders. Subprime lenders based their rates and fees on the same factors as prime lenders. For example, rates were higher the lower the credit score and the...
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...March 2007, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged nearly 250 points when missed payments by subprime mortgage holders hit a four-year high. Later that month when the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs held hearings on what analysts were already calling a mortgage market crisis, the issues of subprime lending was firmly thrust into the national spotlight By the time Congress began this effort to protect hard-working Americans from unscrupulous financial actors, however, subprime mortgages offered to borrowers whose flawed credit history prevents them from obtaining prime rates were thriving as alternative lending vehicles. Not surprisingly, this burgeoning market, and the sophisticated finical infrastructure that has grown around it, poses important questions for legislators and courts. Recently, in skinner v. Preferred Credit, the North Carolina Supreme court refused to extend personal jurisdiction to a nonresident trust that held a subprime mortgage on in-state realty, allegedly in violations of the state’s usury statutes. By examining the financial infrastructure that legally insulated the trust but ignoring the trust’s functional reach, the court failed to recognize the trust’s purposeful contracts with North Carolina and denied an important legal protection to potentially vulnerable borrowers. In January 1997, Garry and Judy Skinner closed on a second mortgage loan from Preferred Credit Corporation. The interest rate on the loan was 14.75%, and the costs...
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...proximate cause of the crisis in 2008 was the failure or risk of failure at major financial institutions globally, starting with the rescue of investment bank Bear Stearns in March 2008 and the failure of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. Many of these institutions had invested in risky securities that lost much or all of their value when U.S. and European housing bubbles began to deflate during the 2007-2009 period, depending on the country. Further, many institutions had become dependent on short-term (overnight) funding markets subject to disruption.[7][8] The origin of these housing bubbles involves two major factors: 1) Low interest rates in the U.S. and Europe following the 2000-2001 U.S. recession; and 2) Significant growth in savings available from developing nations due to ongoing trade imbalances.[9] These factors drove a large increase in demand for high-yield investments. Large investment banks connected the housing markets to this large supply of savings via innovative new securities, fueling housing bubbles in the U.S. and Europe.[10] Many institutions lowered credit standards to continue feeding the global demand for mortgage securities, generating huge profits which its investors shared. They also shared the risk. When the bubbles developed, household debt levels rose sharply after the year 2000 globally. Households became dependent on being able to refinance their mortgages. Further, U.S. households often had adjustable rate mortgages, which had lower initial...
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...Date The economic crisis that struck the world between 2008 to 2009 had such resounding adverse impacts that brought even the mightiest economies to its knees. Even at present, the far-reaching effects of the crisis remain almost palpable and may be seen in high unemployment rates, economies still in recession and seemingly insurmountable national deficits. The United States, where the crisis had its beginnings continues to suffer from the recession even if it is gradually recovering. The present problems in the Euro zone may be partly attributed to the recession of 2008. Because of these, many scholars, economic analysts, researchers and businessmen continue to endeavor up to now to discern what the real cause of the economic crisis was in the hopes that it will not happen again. Many people attribute the global economic meltdown to the collapse of the subprime sector in the United States. To put it simply, the mortgage sector was blamed for the crisis because of how many financial instruments were collateralized by mortgages of people who had bad credit histories. When too many of them failed to meet their obligations, it began a series of defaults that ultimately collapsed not only the mortgage industry but the financial industry as well. All those that have investments in both sectors, local and foreign entities, also became affected as they lost what they have invested. However, a crisis of such scale as that which took place in 2008 to 2009...
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...Subprime Loans - The Under-The-Radar Loans That Felled a Market The problem to be investigated is the ethical challenges for both lenders and borrowers that were the result of the exponential growth in the subprime loan market. The subprime mortgage market grew from $34 billion to $401 billion between 1994 and 2004 (Jennings, 2012, p. 434). The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, fueled by record mortgage delinquencies and home foreclosures, and the subsequent collapse of mortgage-based securities followed by collateralized debt obligations (CDO’s), led to the financial crisis in the late 2000s. This paper will explore the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis on society and will discuss the roles government, corporations and individuals played. This paper will also offer suggestions on responsible behavior to prevent a recurrence. – Good introduction The History of Subprime Mortgages-- Good -- use one section heading for each question asked in assignments like this that have questions. The deregulation by the Federal Government of the banking industry starting in the 1980s is identified by many experts as responsible for setting in motion the events that resulted in the subprime mortgage crisis. A collision of unintended and intended consequences – regulation, greed, uninformed consumers. Subprime loans have been around for a long time. However, they were never meant for borrowers with less than stellar credit nor as primary loans – good point. ARM, balloon payment...
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...profession play in the recent subprime mortgage crisis? The accounting professions played a critical role, and somehow were pointed fingers at mostly, in the recent subprime mortgage crisis. According to Chapter 1 of our book, the accounting professions analyze financial statements, which provide information that is relevant to make rational investment, credit decisions, and other informed judgments to users such as, investors, creditors, and financial advisors. However, accountants and auditors were not the only ones liable here. The subprime crisis was a big disarray, and everyone starting from the lenders, to the homebuyers, and to the investors had got to have a share to the blame. The lenders should be responsible for it because they were the ones who loaned monies to people with poor credit. The homebuyers should be as guilty as well for buying houses that they could hardly afford. Finally, the investors were to be held accountable since they were purchasing collateralized debt obligation (CDO) at low premiums instead of taking the rating at face value. Nonetheless, things happen – no one could have predicted the crisis, and sometimes it is inevitable. Yet, I believe the accounting professions could have prevented it because their job is to be independent, objective, competent, and most especially truthful with the information they evaluate. What should (could) they have done differently? Like I said above, the subprime crisis was inevitable, but it could...
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