More house down payment made by home buyers seemed to be an easy fix for the hardships of the housing market. However, the housing recovery comes, and subprime excesses are going away, the issue is once again up for debate. Consumer advocates and home lenders are on the same side in this debate concerned down payment requirements – which rarely happens if happens at all.
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Getting an interest-only mortgage is becoming increasingly difficult, regulators say. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) expresses concern over too many lenders abandoning such mortgages, or making it impossible to take for ordinary people. Interest-only mortgages allow house buyers to repay the interest monthly. The exodus from such loans is ultimately hurting consumers. Three decades ago, at the dawn of such loans, they made up some 80 percent of the mortgage loans market. Now, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), only 1 percent of first-time borrowers go for interest-only mortgages; exception is the buy-to-let market, where such loans are still popular.
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It was indicated that borrowings made by small businesses in the United States rose just a little in the last month of 2012, according to Reuters.
The Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index gained only about 0.9 to climb to
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As European recession has been deepening for the last three years, the governments were undertaking every measure possible to take a grip on the numerous issues, plaguing the 27 member-states. Greek situation has been a major problem for the EU this year, and now the governments seem to have hit a game changing deal on the long-delayed aid to Greece. On December 13, the landmark agreement was signed by the EU leaders in Brussels. Finance ministers held an overnight marathon to get a consensus on creating a single supervisor for the Euro zone.
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Amid overall financial uncertainty, stalled European crisis, hurricane Sandy aftermath and looming threats of fiscal cliff, U.S. banking industry has shown six-year-high third-quarter earnings, which has been a topic of optimism lately. Banks managed to reduce the amount of money set aside for possible losses by $3.8 billion, a 20.6 percent cut compared to last year. Revenues grew, boosting the earnings. The industry earnings have soared 6.6 percent ($2.3 billion). Net operating revenues rose $4.9 billion, or 3 percent compared to 2011 Q3.
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