According to unnamed sources, the heads of the Big Six banks met with the Bank of Canada’s Mark Carney on Nov. 25. That’s according to this Globe & Mail article.
The Globe writes that the banking giants privately told policy makers to tighten mortgage qualifications—including increasing minimum down payments and reducing maximum amortizations.
The Globe says “Not one [of the bankers] disputed the idea that it would be wise for Ottawa to take action” and make it harder for people to get mortgages. That is “according to people familiar with the discussions,” states the Globe’s story. Apparently Mark Carney himself wouldn’t confirm any of this.
Assuming these accounts are factual, what could be behind the banks' seemingly altruistic desire to sacrifice short-term mortgage profits for stricter insured mortgage lending?
- The Globe suggests banks are concerned about a potential housing crash. That could increase mortgage defaults and spill over into non-insured loans—costing the banks a lot of money.
- The Georgia Straight feels the banks’ motives may be more ulterior. It says their concern may be due to brand new OSFI accounting rules that make high-ratio insured mortgages less attractive to hold on banks’ balance sheets.
- “An added bonus for the banks,” according to the Straight, "would be that tighter mortgage rules would make life harder for the banks’ competitors, like credit unions, which rely heavily on mortgages."
In a follow-up story published today, the Globe says Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty, sees no bubble threat at this time, and has no immediate plans to tighten mortgage rules.
Geez, they wouldn’t want to hurt their competition – aka mortgage brokers, who do particularly well with first-time buyers, would they?
Generally speaking I’ve learned that, when the banks’ lips are moving, they’re lying. They have businesses to run, but I suspect that their motives are usually more self-centred than they let on.
The G&M story also comments on the growth of unsecured debt like Credit Cards and other LOC’s; these liabilities are entirely of the Banks’ making and deserve to be controlled if not curtailed.
Why do the banks need the government to tighten up mortgage policies? Why don’t they just tighten up on their own. Because they don’t want to lose market share by tightening their own lending policies. If a bank tightens up, more customers will walk away from that bank and start shopping. And they’ll be shopping more than just the big six. Instead they want the government to lower the boom on everyone so that it will have less effect on their own market share.
Too bad there wasn’t such as thing as mortgage default insurance that would protect the banks when doing high ratio mortgages. lol
If the banks want to see increased regulation in the market, lets give them what they want and increase the banks manditory liquidity and capital requirements!
Of course they would hate that because money in the vault makes 0.00% interest which ironically is what they give their customers for their deposit accounts!