SPECIAL REPORT

MORTGAGES – HOW SERIOUS IS THE P ROBLEM?

AUGUST 2009

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Executive Summary
Throughout this report a comprehensive analysis is conducted on the U.S housing market and associated
mortgages. The current market situation as well as some of its history is presented, which leads us into the
U.S residential mortgage market. Seeing that most subprime mortgages have either been modified or
declared default, we are about to face the second wave of resets within so-called option ARM’s and Alt-A
mortgages. It is difficult to rightfully predict any amounts because of the fragmented nature of the U.S
housing and mortgage market, as well as when U.S banks still have considerable freedom regarding when to
realize losses and how they mark-to-market. Early predictions for subprime losses ranged from a couple of
billion dollars up to a few hundred, but so far actual losses and writedowns for financial institutions in the
U.S have reached $1Tn according to Bloomberg. If looking forward we expect total losses from option ARM’s
and Alt-A mortgages to exceed the ones of subprime, adding up to around $1.2Tn in 2012.

Table of Contents
The U.S Housing Market ........................................................................................... 3

U.S Residential Mortgage Market ................................................................................ 4

Historical Default Rates ........................................................................................... 5

Mortgage Resets .................................................................................................... 8

Who Are Exposed?................................................................................................ 10

FDIC ............................................................................................................. 13

Concluding Remarks ............................................................................................. 14

Appendix .......................................................................................................... 15

The Housing Spirals, 2001 – Current ........................................................................ 16

Types of Mortgages ............................................................................................ 17

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The U.S Housing Market
During the period 2000-2006 house prices increased on average by an annual rate of 9%, much because of
the widespread and cheap financing that was available. Not only interest rates were kept low, but a new set
of mortgages became popular, e.g. subprime, Alt-A and option ARM’s. A resemblance between the three is
that they have facilitated for consumers to buy houses they could not really afford, at least not for the
moment. Indirectly, all these mortgage holders were speculating on continuing rising house prices and it all
went fine as long as houses kept increasing in value.

However, in 2006 house prices began to decline as one can see in the graph below. House prices have
declined by up to 30% in some regions since its peak and have either eliminated or turned almost all pre-
existing home-equity negative. As prime mortgage holders, which mean people with good credit
history/stable income/low DTI etc., now start to default on their monthly payments we will eventually
begin to see further rising default and foreclosure rates. Furthermore, there is evidence showing that some
banks allow people that already have defaulted on their loans or going through foreclosure to stay in their
homes. The rationale for this is simple because instead of having to mark-to-market the value of the
mortgage (upon foreclosure), which obviously is worth much less than it is stated in the books, banks forego
interest payments.

200

180
Case-Shiller U.S HPI
3mhts Trailing Average
160

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

Source: Bloomberg and Saxo Bank Research &Strategy

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U.S Residential Mortgage Market
The U.S residential mortgage market, according to Milken Institute research amounts to approximately
$10.6tn. This is out of a total value of $19.3tn of the U.S housing market, meaning the remaining $8.7tn
consists of home owner equity. Furthermore, there are roughly 80mn houses in the U.S where 27mn of them
are fully paid off, leaving 53mn or 2/3 with some kind of mortgage. Of the $10.6tn mortgage market 7.6% or
$0.81tn - only a fraction - was recognized as subprime mortgages, down from 13.5% just four years ago. All
data above is as of June 20081.

The bar graph below includes numbers from a Freddie Mac report on the U.S mortgage market, thereof the
slightly different numbers than the ones discussed above. Here one can see the historical development of
the mortgage market from the 1990’s up until 2015E. Looking back at 1990 where new loans issued
amounted to about $500mn this number have increased to $2.4tn in 2007, but only to decline to $900mn for
the first two quarters of 2008. The total amount of mortgages outstanding over the same period climbed
from $2.9tn to $12.0tn.

($Tn) U.S Residential Mortgage Debt Outstanding

$20.0
$18.6
$18.0
U.S Annual GDP
$16.0

$14.0
$12.6
$12.0 $11.9 $11.8
$12.0 $11.2
$10.1
$10.0

$8.0

$6.0 $5.5
$3.7
$4.0 $2.9

$2.0

$0.0
1990 1995 2000 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009E 2010E 2015E
Source: Freddie Mac and Saxo Bank Research &Strategy

1
All numbers are based on Milken Institute research, ”The Rise and Fall of the U.S. Mortgage and Credit Markets”, 2009.

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Historical Default Rates
By looking at Freddie Mac’s current Loan-to-Value (LTV) of their single-family portfolio, one can conclude
that today’s figure is much higher than during previous recessions. With an average of approximately 60%
LTV (meaning 40% home equity) during the last decade, we have encountered growing rates. For this
particular Freddie Mac portfolio ($1.8tn in size) LTV equalled 76% as of March 31st 2009 and climbing.

Numerous articles from July this year claim that LTV is the one most important factor when predicting
defaults and foreclosures. One specific issue reoccurred several times and that was attempts to prove that
subprime mortgages not necessarily were the main trigger for the burst of the housing bubble, but instead
the problem was the severely increasing LTV among mortgages holders. That is among all classes of
mortgages. Outright, consumers both poor and rich thought of their houses as being something equivalent to
a credit card. As the value of the property increased money was withdrawn periodically through home
equity line of credit (HELOC), meaning that there was no equity margin when property prices started to
decline in 2006. The “withdrawn” money was in most cases used for excessive consumption. The graph
below illustrates the housing bubble.

$25,000.0
U.S GDP
Housing Valuation
Personal Consumption Expenditure
$20,000.0

$15,000.0

$10,000.0

$5,000.0

$0.0
1945

1949

1953

1957

1961

1965

1969

1973

1977
1979

1983

1987

1991

1995

1999

2003

2007
1947

1951

1955

1959

1963

1967

1971

1975

1981

1985

1989

1993

1997

2001

2005

2009

$bn

Source: Bloomberg and Saxo Bank Research &Strategy

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Below is a graph from the U.S Government Accountability Office (GAO), showing historical defaults, starting
foreclosures and continuing foreclosures for home mortgages. Rather interesting is that lately both default
and foreclosure rates have actually increased during non-recessionary periods as well, which indicates that
the general trend has been along the lines of taking on more debt, thus more risk. However, as we have
mentioned in earlier reports and statements this so called debt finance megatrend we have been living in
the last decades are about to come to an end.

Source: U.S Government Accountability Office

Recently the American Bankers Association (ABA) reported that their benchmark survey for consumer
delinquencies, which tracks some 300 banks and late payments on eight types of closed-end loans, hit all-
time high since October 1974 when the survey began. To name a few, home equity loan delinquencies
increased from 3.03% to 3.52% QoQ and personal loan delinquencies increased from 2.88% to 3.47% over the
same period. According to the U.S Weekly Continuing Claims indicator the U.S economy has lost some 6.7mn
jobs since the beginning of the crisis in the fall of 2007. On top of the 6.7mn jobless people another 3mn
people are out of work but have exceeded the time of receiving unemployment benefits, which is set to 26
weeks. However, of course there are “emergency” programs for up till 40 additional weeks where people
receive support from the government. All in all, the actual number of unemployed people in the U.S
therefore totals close to 10mn. Moreover, 2.5mn previous full-time workers have been demoted to part-
time. According to James Chessen, Chief Economist at ABA, “delinquencies won’t come down without a
dramatic improvement in the economy and businesses will have to start hiring again”.

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The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) 2 recently
came out with their quarterly mortgage metrics report, where serious delinquencies (60+ days past due and
delinquent but in bankruptcy) had risen to 5% after Q109 and almost doubled from last year’s 2.7%.
However, what is interesting about this increase is that prime mortgages accounted for the largest fraction
with an increase of 20% of serious delinquencies compared to the previous quarter, for a total of 2.9% of all
prime mortgages. As subprime delinquencies actually were reduced, Alt-A mortgages joined the prime
category and continued to increase. These figures reveal that the distress caused by subprime mortgage
holders in the housing market have somewhat eased, while still rising for prime mortgage holders. We
should definitely keep an eye out for Alt-A mortgages and option ARM’s as well, more of that in the coming
section.

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association 51% of all foreclosed homes in the last three years were
financed with prime loans. Moreover, the prime loans foreclosure rate increased by 488%, while the
subprime rate only grew 200%. All figures are based on the period beginning in Q3 2006, a time when
foreclosures started to pick up in pace. Since then 4.3mn (6% of the U.S market) homes have declared
foreclosure. To further substantiate the argument and the importance of keeping LTV low is that in the
second half of 2008 12% of all U.S households reported they had negative home-equity (LTV>100%), and that
12% constituted for 47% of all foreclosures during the same period.

Nowadays, according to a Reuters article the average American just “owns” 8% of their home (8% equity,
92% loan). However, this includes all house owners even them with no mortgages, meaning that the average
U.S mortgage holder actually have negative home-equity. If we look closer at the numbers from the Freddie
Mac report (bar graph on p. 5) an 8% equity stake today would mean the U.S housing market has shrunk to a
total value of $12.8tn from $19.3tn a year ago, all else being equal. Of the $12.8tn, approximately $11.8tn
would be the $ amount of mortgages outstanding and the remaining one trillion the equity stake. If the
numbers above are correct the U.S housing market has declined in value by 33.7% in just one year and
$7.7tn worth of home equity is gone. Both the Case-Shiller U.S HPI as well as the Case-Shiller 20 year
composite index indicates shrinking values equalling 20-25% over the last year.

2
OCC and OTS covers 34mn loans that amounts to approx. $6tn in principals, thus representing some 64% of the total U.S mortgage
market.

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Mortgage Resets
Most people blame the subprime mortgage market for the burst of the U.S housing bubble. Though, it was
strongly supportive for the downturn during the period of resets (peak in late 2008) and from the graph
below it can be inferred that we are about to enter the second phase of mortgage resets that will steadily
increase until reaching its peak in mid-2012.

Source: Credit Suisse and Loan Performance

Furthermore, the cumulative amount is growing to worrying levels. The aggregate result is that
delinquencies and foreclosures will most certainly continue to increase at least until mid-2012 and probably
leaving the U.S house market in another free fall.

As one can see, this time it is not subprime mortgages but instead Alt-A and option ARM’s that are about to
be refinanced. As mentioned in Business Insider recently, the new wave of resets concerns borrowers with
originally better credit scores than subprime holders, however they have pursued similar strategies. In
essence, they have financed loans with low starting rates and when time has come to refinance there are
three options basically. First, you can sell the house (not an option for most homeowners since LTV>100%).
Secondly, you can work out a new comparable deal (not likely today with delinquencies and foreclosure
rates rocketing). Thirdly and what increases in popularity with worrying speed is that you can just walk
away. This “strategic default” as the media calls it has rocketed during the first half of 2009 and now
amounts to 26% of all defaults across the US. According to a study from Northwestern University and
University of Chicago, there is an 82% chance that someone who knows a person that has defaulted
strategically will do it themselves. In other words there is considerable risk for a negative domino effect if
this kind of defaults continues.

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We believe this is going to hit the markets and especially the housing market because the refinancing period
will most certainly leave deep scares, just like subprime did. As a result house prices will most likely
plummet once again and we will experience the second leg (W-shaped recession) downturn of the current
economic recession.

$50.0 $1,800.0
Monthly Mortgage Rate Resets (L axis)
Cumulative Amount (R axis) $1,600.0
$45.0

$1,400.0
$40.0
Today $1,200.0

$35.0 $1,000.0

$30.0 $800.0

$600.0
$25.0
$400.0

$20.0
$200.0

$15.0 $0.0
December
December

August

December

December
August

August

August

April
April

April

April

$Bn $Bn

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Source: Credit Suisse and Saxo Bank Research &Strategy

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Who Are Exposed?
Since there are several types of mortgages to which different banks have varied exposure too, the
reoccurring themes throughout the report have been Alt-A mortgages and option ARM’s. We will focus more
on those particular two later in this section. First, in the table below is a list of the 25 banks with most
loans outstanding in general and the 30+ days delinquency rate and the $ amounts. All figures throughout
this section with courtesy of WLM Lab.

# Institution Loan Amount 30+ Days Delinquent %

1 BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION $995,268 $41,001 4.12
2 WELLS FARGO & COMPANY $813,418 $50,483 6.21
3 JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. $720,087 $39,388 5.47
4 CITIGROUP INC. $543,987 $22,642 4.16
5 U.S. BANCORP $180,145 $7,906 4.39
6 PNC FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP $164,520 $7,470 4.54
7 SUNTRUST BANKS, INC. $118,606 $3,517 2.97
8 HSBC HOLDINGS PLC $116,659 $4,585 3.93
9 CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATIO $115,346 $4,424 3.84
10 UK FINANCIAL INVESTMENTS LIMITED $106,223 $1,437 1.35
11 BB&T CORPORATION $96,123 $2,217 2.31
12 REGIONS FINANCIAL CORPORATION $85,300 $2,344 2.75
13 FIFTH THIRD BANCORP $81,348 $2,178 2.68
14 KEYCORP $61,788 $1,633 2.64
15 BANCO SANTANDER, S.A. $59,782 $1,407 2.35
16 DISCOVER FINANCIAL SERVICES $53,632 $2,420 4.51
17 BNP PARIBAS $51,007 $791 1.55
18 MITSUBISHI UFJ FINANCIAL GROUP $49,418 $288 0.58
19 THE TORONTO-DOMINION BANK $48,877 $569 1.17
20 MARSHALL & ILSLEY CORPORATION $47,591 $1,503 3.16
21 ALLIED IRISH BANKS, P.L.C. $45,748 $625 1.37
22 COMERICA INCORPORATED $45,246 $686 1.52
23 BANCO BILBAO VIZCAYA ARGENTARIA $41,803 $1,023 2.45
24 ZIONS BANCORPORATION $41,215 $879 2.13
25 HUNTINGTON BANCSHARES INCORPORAT $37,134 $811 2.18
Source: WLM Lab ($ millions)

Below is) a summarized table showing the total dollar amount outstanding and 30+ days delinquent amount
for the top 25 banks and also the remaining 7,266.

# Total Amount 30+ Days Delinquent %

1 to 25 4,720,271 202,227 4.28
26 to 7291 2,865,618 63,300 2.21
Source: WLM Lab ($ millions)
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)
In the overall loans category on which all the amounts mentioned above are based upon, 11 portfolios are
included covering 97.91% of all loans in the U.S. The 11 portfolios and their respective weight;

Loan Type % Tot Loans

1-4 Family First Liens 23.68
Commercial & Industrial 18.60
Loans to Individuals 13.91
Commercial Real Estate 13.51
Home Equity Loans 8.70
Construction & Development 7.32
Credit Card Loans 5.20
1-4 Family Junior Liens 2.72
Multifamily Residential RE 2.72
Farmland Loans 0.83
Farm Loans 0.72
Source: WLM Lab ($ millions) 97.91
)
From this list there are at least two classes of mortgages directly linked to the U.S housing market and that
represents a significant portion compared to the total amount outstanding. By looking at 1-4 family first
liens and home equity loans we should be able to determine which banks that are largely exposed to and
dependent on the U.S housing market. It is not surprisingly four banks that stand out from the rest, i.e. Bank
of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan and Citigroup, by far the four largest lenders in the market. Below is a
table representing the four largest lenders of 1-4 family first liens mortgages and their respective $ amounts
and delinquencies. The four largest lenders mentioned here are responsible for some 46% of the total
outstanding amount of these loans. At the bottom the remaining banks are divided into number 5-25 in
terms of loan amounts and their combined total, as well as banks ranking between 26-7291.

1-4 Family First Liens

Bank # Institution Loan Amount Delinquent %
1 BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION $296,047 $13,661 4.61
2 WELLS FARGO & COMPANY $235,836 $32,406 13.74
3 JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. $166,750 $19,904 11.94
4 CITIGROUP INC. $131,117 $9,855 7.52
5 to 25 - $387,396 $16,364 4.22
26 to 7291 - $616,983 $16,800 2.72
All Total $1,834,128 $108,990 5.94
Source: WLM Lab ($ millions)

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Moving on to the next category - home equity loans. The table is worryingly alike the previous one expect
for that Wells Fargo and JPMorgan switched places. When sorting on home equity loans the domination of
the big four is even stronger with 56% of the loan amount outstanding. Furthermore, consistent throughout
all tables is that the big four experience delinquency rates that are much higher than its competitors.

Home Equity Loans

Bank # Institution Loan Amount Delinquent %
1 BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION 125,273 4,861 3.88
2 JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. 112,630 3,555 3.16
3 WELLS FARGO & COMPANY 105,491 2,848 2.70
4 CITIGROUP INC. 32,092 663 2.07
5 to 25 - $167,777 $2,174 1.30
26 to 7291 - $131,071 $1,393 1.06
All Total $674,334 $15,494 2.30
Source: WLM Lab ($ millions)

)
As concluded earlier in this report the trouble, which is just around the corner, are mainly within Alt-A
mortgages and option ARM’s that are about to reset. There is one major difference though which can make
the upcoming reset period much worse than what we already have experienced with subprime. That is,
before the subprime reset period the U.S housing market had faced years of rising prices (read home equity)
and even though people took out home equity loans their mortgages were not underwater. Today, as
pointed out earlier, most if not all mortgage holder (including Alt-A and option ARM holders) have negative
home equity because of the severe value contraction in the U.S housing market.

Looking closer at especially option ARM’s the WSJ said (mid-July) that for the third straight month option
ARM’s are outpacing subprime in terms of delinquencies and foreclosures. If this continues it will certainly
mean higher than expected losses for institutions like Wells Fargo, JPMorgan and FDIC. Wells Fargo e.g.
obtained $115bn worth of option ARM’s when they took over Wachovia (who got them when acquiring
Golden West) according to the books and Wells Fargo means they are worth somewhere around $93bn
today3. We believe this number is strongly inflated because a great wave of serious delinquencies and
foreclosures are about to hit that particular market in just a few months time. For another already
mentioned giant JPMorgan, they sit on nearly $90bn “worth” of option ARM’s mainly acquired along with
Washington Mutual. For the GSE Freddie Mac’ s single family portfolio from 2005, 59% of all loans are option
ARM’s, further in their 2006 portfolio 28% was recognized as Alt-A. A detailed bar graph can be found in the
appendix exhibit 1 showing option ARM’s resets.

The graph below illustrates how substantial the amount towards real estate is out of total US bank lending.
Ever since after the World War II more than half of outgoing funds have ended up in the real estate market
and subsequent to the dip in year 2000 the share has increased steadily to reach 55%.

3
Most loans are close to or at 100% LTV already, so this sum seems highly unrealistic.

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Source: Bloomberg and Saxo Bank Research &Strategy

FDIC
Finally, when taking a closer look and investigating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s balance
sheet, some worrying figures arise. First, the total amount available in the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) at
the beginning of the year amounted to $15Bn, after Q1 it was $13Bn and now after Q2 remains only $826Mn.
Taking into consideration the number of FDIC insured banks that have failed during the last three months
(42) and the DIF cost ($12Bn), if we would experience just a fraction of the banking failures from the
previous quarter, the DIF will run dry. That means the FDIC must go run to the Treasury for their “promised”
$500Bn credit line, which by the way is not even funded yet.

Interesting to note is that by looking at the 64 failing banks during 2009, 99% of them had cost-to-assets
higher than 7.7% (that should be covered by the taxpayer). The average was 30% which indicates that the
accounting standards are completely untrustworthy. Moreover, if combining this knowledge with the banks
leveraged positions one will find out that it is highly unbearable (implying widespread insolvency) in the
longer term except if short-term interest rates stay this low for a considerable period.

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Concluding Remarks
Outright, consumers have thought of their houses as being something equivalent to credit cards. As the
value of houses and properties increased during the early 2000’s money was withdrawn through home equity
loans, meaning that there was no equity margin left whatsoever when prices started to decline in 2006. The
withdrawn money was in most cases used to excessive consumption. The downward spiral in the U.S housing
market has picked up lately, yet there is more to come. After having seen the first wave of delinquencies
and foreclosures mostly related to subprime mortgages, option ARM’s and Alt-A mortgages are next on turn
and we expect a steep rise in delinquencies and foreclosures during the second half of 2009 as
unemployment continues to climb. Below is a “snapshot” summary table calculating the estimated total
losses for different types of mortgages. Based on the arguments throughout this report, the estimated total
loss for the five types of loans will climb to over $1.2Tn when reset periods for option ARM’s and Alt-A
mortgages kick in later this year. Important to note is that this amount is volatile with regards to changing
delinquency rates and recovery rates.

Mortgage Market % 60+ Days Recovery Est. Σ

Type Size (Bn) Delinquency Rate Loss (Bn)
Prime $5,800 14.0% 58%** $341
Alt-A $2,400 23.9% 43% $327
Subprime $1,500 36.0% 30% $378
Home Equity $1,200 4.0%* 25% $36
Option ARM's $700 38.0%* 40% $160
Total $11,600 - - $1,242
* Sa xo Ba nk Es tima te
** Recovery ra te for pri me jumbo l oa ns

Source: J.P. Morgan and Saxo Bank Research &Strategy

)
This will eventually lead to further declining house prices. One should carefully monitor Bank of America,
Wells Fargo, JPMorgan and Citi Group the coming months as these big players own large quantities of these
kinds of mortgages.

Loan Amount Outstanding/30+ Days Delinquency Rate %

7
Wells Fargo
6
JPMorgan
5
Bank of
4
Citi Group America
3

0
$0 $200,000 $400,000 $600,000 $800,000 $1,000,000 $1,200,000
Page | 14
Source: WLM Lab and Saxo Bank Research &Strategy
Appendix
Exhibit 1

Option ARM Resets, Mar 09 – Dec 12

Totaling around $300Bn of option ARM resets from today’s date until September 2012.

Page | 15
The Housing Spirals, 2001 – Current
This illustration starts off in 2001 during the Tech
bubble, where interest rates were lowered substantially
for stimulating the contracting economy. When leaving
the first spiral for the second, we are time wise in mid-
2006 where house prices started to flatten out and
eventually decline. During this phase we encountered
the first massive reset/refinance period as well, mostly
subprime mortgages.

Note that the second figure is a complete circle and after what has been argued above, we claim that the
U.S is currently situated between point 5 and 6, in the second round. In other words, all else being equal a
comparable situation to what we experienced with subprime three years ago. Only this time the U.S housing
market and economy is on its knees already.

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Types of Mortgages
Seven types of mortgages are presented in ascending order with regards to perceived risk.

Prime Mortgages
Prime mortgages are high-quality loans that meet all requirements set by the GSE’s Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
and Ginnie Mae. Meeting all requirements means they are eligible for purchase or securitization in the
secondary mortgage market. To qualify for a prime mortgage borrowers need exceptional credit history and
an income at least 3-4 times greater than the payments for holding the mortgage. With firm requirements
like this, both delinquencies and default rates are kept very low (around 1%) compared to other mortgage
classes.

Jumbo Mortgages
A jumbo mortgage is no more than a larger sum than is allowed for prime, (all loans above $417.000 is
considered jumbo) borrowed in order to buy a more expensive house. The limit deciding if a loan is prime or
jumbo is set by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO). Not surprisingly, we saw this
type of mortgage face a steep number increase during the 2000’s in line with the booming housing market.
With house prices rising on average with an annual rate of 9% between 2000-2006 larger loans rose in
popularity.
Since high-rated mortgages, like prime and jumbo, are turned into securities and traded in the secondary
market the liquidity of these particular securities is vital. Jumbo loans are normally tied to higher interest
rates than prime loans and that is partly for the sake of a relative illiquid secondary market. However,
important to mention is that we have in recent years faced decreasing spreads between jumbo and
conventional (prime) mortgages.

Mortgage Backed Securities

A security which consists of numerous mortgage loans (may also be different types) and when pooled
together creates a security that is backed by interest payments from the mortgages. In other words, a debt
obligation that represents claims equal to the combined cash flow from the mortgages. Most MBS’s are
issued by either Ginnie Mae or, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac who are both still under conservatorship. Since
these MBS’s are issued by GSE’s it means they are close to risk free, Ginnie Mae is backed with full faith and
credit by the U.S government and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by the U.S Treasury, thus implicitly the U.S
government.

Asset Backed Securities

An asset backed security is similar in the structure to a mortgage backed security, therefore it is suitable to
describe the ABS while looking at the differences to a MBS. As explained above MBS’s are backed by
mortgages of different kinds; residential, commercial, single family, multi family, fixed rate or floating rate
etc., while ABS’s are backed by non-mortgage assets like student loans, credit card receivables, home
equity loans, auto loans etc. As mentioned above MBS’s entail very low risk because of the government
“support”, but this is rarely found among ABS’s and as a result the perceived credit risk is greater. From an
investor’s point of view, ABS’s are a good alternative to high-rated corporate debt, because they are by
nature diversified and the secondary market is at least as liquid as for corporate debt.

Page | 17
Alt-A Mortgages
As indicated here, Alt-A loans (alternative prime) is subordinate to prime mortgages, but senior to subprime
and that is why it has become almost a generic term in the news for any mortgage that is neither prime nor
subprime. Alt-A mortgages are thought to be for people with stable income and good credit scores, however
does not qualify for top rated loans. There might be several explanations, maybe the borrower falls just
short of the credit limit (can vary, however subprime if below 620 FICO score) or does not possess the
required income/asset documentation for a prime loan, even though the down payment can be paid. Rates
for Alt-A mortgages vary in between prime and subprime, while abnormally high (sometimes 100%) Loan-to-
Value is allowed. This obviously makes the loan a greater risk to the lender, because less equity from the
borrower’s pocket implies less incentive for honouring the contract if things go out of hand.

Subprime Mortgages
Basically, all mortgages that do not qualify as prime, jumbo or Alt-A mortgages are placed in the subprime
category. Thus, this mortgage class is rather broad and may include e.g. adjustable rate mortgages. Since
these mortgages are approved to people with bad (below 620 FICO score) or lacking credit history, low
income, minimum/if any down payment, they become very risky for the lender. There is evidence
documenting that the probability of default is around 6 times higher for subprime loans compared to prime.

Option Adjustable Rate Mortgages

This kind of mortgage has rates that adjust and change depending on financial market conditions. Normally
these Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARM’s) start at very low rates, so-called “teaser” rates in order to attract
consumers. As they attract borrowers by the initial low rates (sometimes even negative amortization for the
first years), which in most cases increases in order to match the market, they simultaneously transfer the
interest risk from the lender to the borrower. It is especially within ARM’s, as well as Alt-A mortgages that
we expect to face rising delinquencies and foreclosures within a foreseeable future. Expectations are that
these two mortgage types will, as we painfully experienced in 2007-2008 with subprime, put severe
downward pressure on the U.S housing market once again as we are about to enter a new period of
mortgage resets.

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