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Mortgage companies and regulatory arbitrage

Author

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  • Yuliya Demyanyk
  • Elena Loutskina
Abstract
Mortgage companies (MCs) originated about 60% of all mortgages before the 2007 crisis and continue to hold a 30% market share postcrisis. While financial regulations are strictly enforced for depository institutions (banks), they are weakly enforced for MCs even if they are subsidiaries of a bank holding company (BHC). This study documents that the resulting regulatory arbitrage creates incentives for BHCs to engage in risk shifting through their MC affiliates. We show that MCs are established to circumvent the capital requirements and to shield the parent BHCs from loan-related losses. BHCs run the risky mortgage business through their MC affiliates. As compared to bank affiliates of BHCs, the MC affiliates lent more to individuals with lower credit scores, lower incomes, and higher loan-to-income ratios. MC borrowers experienced higher rates of foreclosure and delinquency during the crisis. Our results imply that the regulation in place had the capacity to prevent the deterioration of lending standards widely blamed for the crisis. The inconsistent enforcement of regulation, though, eroded its effectiveness. Higher involvement of mortgage companies in subprime lending and securitization activity do not explain our results.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuliya Demyanyk & Elena Loutskina, 2012. "Mortgage companies and regulatory arbitrage," Working Papers (Old Series) 1220R, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedcwp:1220
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    Cited by:

    1. Sumit Agarwal & Gene Amromin & Itzhak Ben-David & Douglas D. Evanoff, 2016. "Loan Product Steering in Mortgage Markets," NBER Working Papers 22696, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Emil Adamek & Jan Janku, 2022. "What Drives Small Business Crowdfunding? Impact of Macroeconomic and Financial Factors," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 72(2), pages 172-196, June.
    3. Karapetyan, A. & Kværner, Jens & Rohrer, Maximilian, 2024. "Inefficient regulation: Mortgages versus total credit," Other publications TiSEM f1611bef-5be9-46fc-8a3e-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. van der Plaat, Mark, 2020. "Loan sales and the tyranny of tistance in U.S. residential mortgage lending," MPRA Paper 107519, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Apr 2021.
    5. Chakraborty, Indraneel & Goldstein, Itay & MacKinlay, Andrew, 2020. "Monetary stimulus and bank lending," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 189-218.
    6. Fulvia Fringuellotti & João A. C. Santos, 2021. "Insurance Companies and the Growth of Corporate Loan Securitization," Liberty Street Economics 20211013, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    7. Cesa-Bianchi, Ambrogio & Rebucci, Alessandro, 2017. "Does easing monetary policy increase financial instability?," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 111-125.
    8. Chen, Zhongdong & Ebrahim, Alireza, 2018. "Turnover threat and CEO risk-taking behavior in the banking industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 87-105.
    9. Clark, Brian & Ebrahim, Alireza, 2022. "Risk shifting and regulatory arbitrage: Evidence from operational risk," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    10. Eduardo Dávila & Ansgar Walther, 2021. "Corrective Regulation with Imperfect Instruments," NBER Working Papers 29160, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Eliana Balla & Raymond Brastow & Daniel Edgel & Morgan Rose, 2024. "The Effect of Regulatory Oversight on Nonbank Mortgage Subsidiaries," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 68(3), pages 523-575, April.
    12. Bernhard Kassner, 2023. "Taming Overconfident CEOs Through Stricter Financial Regulation," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 375, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    13. Yang, Liu & van Wijnbergen, S. & Qi, Xiaotong & Yi, Yuhuan, 2019. "Chinese shadow banking, financial regulation and effectiveness of monetary policy," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    14. Allen N. Berger & Onesime Epouhe & Raluca Roman, 2021. "A Tale of Two Bailouts: Effects of TARP and PPP on Subprime Consumer Debt," Working Papers 21-32, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    15. Martynova, Natalya & Vogel, Ursula, 2022. "Banks’ complexity-risk nexus and the role of regulation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    16. Pelster, Matthias, 2024. "Leverage constraints and investors' choice of underlyings," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    17. Andreas Fuster & Matthew Plosser & James Vickery, 2018. "Does CFPB Oversight Crimp Credit?," Staff Reports 857, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    18. Kristian S. Blickle & João A. C. Santos, 2022. "Unintended Consequences of "Mandatory" Flood Insurance," Staff Reports 1012, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    19. Claudia M. Buch & Linda S. Goldberg, 2021. "Complexity and Riskiness of Banking Organizations: Evidence from the International Banking Research Network," Staff Reports 966, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    20. Lingxiao Li & Bing Zhu, 2020. "Housing Wealth, Consumption Channels and Mortgage Liberalization," International Real Estate Review, Global Social Science Institute, vol. 23(4), pages 433-465.
    21. Glancy, David, 2021. "Housing bust, bank lending & employment: Evidence from multimarket banks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    22. Huiyi Zhang & Richard Skolnik & Yue Han & Jinpei Wu, 2020. "The Impacts of China's Shadow Banking Credit Creation on the Effectiveness of Monetary Policy," International Journal of Finance & Banking Studies, Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 9(4), pages 33-46, October.
    23. Kang, Jung Koo & Loumioti, Maria & Wittenberg-Moerman, Regina, 2021. "The harmonization of lending standards within banks through mandated loan-level transparency," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1).
    24. Chen, Jiakai, 2022. "Market discipline and regulatory arbitrage: Evidence from ABCP liquidity guarantors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Banks and banking; Mortgages; Foreclosure; Regulation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation

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