In December 2013 the National Bank of Belgium introduced a sectoral capital requirement aimed at strengthening the resilience of Belgian banks against adverse developments in the real estate market. This paper assesses the impact of this macroprudential measure on mortgage lending spreads. Our...

Credit creation in the housing market has been a key source of systemic financial risk, and therefore is at the center of the debate on macroprudential policies. The loan-to-value (LTV) ratio is a widely used macroprudential tool aimed at moderating mortgage loan creation, and its effectiveness...

This paper measures market power in a decentralized market where contracts are determined through a search and negotiation process. The mortgage industry has many institutional features which suggest competitiveness: homogeneous contracts, negotiable rates, and, for a given consumer, common...

We provide an empirical analysis of the effects of the Federal Reserve's asset holdings on MBS yields and mortgage rates. We argue that understanding the particulars of the U.S. mortgage markets, particularly the linkages between the secondary and primary mortgage markets, is important. We find...

This study is motivated by an ongoing controversy over banks' interest rate setting conduct in the Australian mortgage market. We examine heterogeneity in the response of variable interest rates on owner-occupied housing loans to the ‘cost of funds' rates, including the cash rate and the cost...

Do negative policy rates hinder banks' transmission of monetary policy? To answer this question, we examine the behaviour of Italian mortgage lenders using a novel loan-level dataset. When policy rates turn negative, banks with higher ratios of retail overnight deposits to total assets charge...

Mortgage dollar roll is the most common financing strategy for agency MBS. Effectively a collateralized loan, it differs from repos in two important ways: the returned collateral can differ from those received, and the MBS ownership changes hands in the funding period. Therefore, dollar roll...

Starting from the mid-2000s, Poland experienced a period of rapid growth in mortgage lending, with banks offering foreign-currency, high-LTV housing loans, which exposed the sector to rising credit risk and funding challenges. Later, a surge in consumer lending led to a threat of rising credit...

Non-banks originated about half of all mortgages in 2016, and 75% of mortgages insured by the FHA or VA. Both shares are much higher than those observed at any point in the 2000s. We describe in this paper how non-bank mortgage companies are vulnerable to liquidity pressures in both their loan...

This paper provides novel evidence on the effects of LTV limits on housing choices. I exploit the 2010 and 2012 introduction of LTV limits in Israel using a detailed loan-level dataset. I find that the LTV limits, which were designed to lower borrowers' risk, resulted in borrowers choosing more...