The subprime crisis hit the world of finance in August 2007. The consequences have been immediate and impacts on the economies of societies and countries are still not clearly known. Before returning to the origin of the crisis and its ripple effect, Let us first understand what is subprime.
The subprime mortgages are subprime. In simple words, the principle allows a person to purchase a property for a fixed interest rate particularly low the first 2 years (e.g. 1.45%) and then switch to a floating rate contains a risk premium (e.g. 8%). In return, the property is mortgaged.
In this case, credits are awarded after consideration of the desired value of the property contrary to practices where banks extend credit after the creditworthiness of the borrower. The monthly payments increase significantly after the second year, making it impossible for most buyers to repay their loans.
The latter sold their property with a capital gain (the U.S. housing market growing 10% per year) enabling them to repay the loan and interest. In 2007, Beneficiaries wishing to sell their subprime real estate at the end of second year was leading a face down in the U.S. housing market.
The property value has decreased since purchase and no longer allows the sale to repay the subprime credit. The borrower's credit subprime personal files for bankruptcy, the bank gets the house and put on sale. It will be sold with a significant loss may go beyond 20%.
At least, nearly 1.5 million procedures were personal bankruptcy during and after the U.S. Senate nearly 3 million households could lose their homes. Credit agencies are faced subprime loan defaults pile up and generate huge losses due to losses made on the sale of foreclosed homes. These significant losses have caused the bankruptcy of more than thirty credit agencies; they always present provisioning amounts of losses of hundreds of millions of dollars.
