DETERMINANTS OF MORTGAGE LOAN REPAYMENT IN GHANA

The housing deficit in Ghana is an issue of concern for all. This study sought to analyse the determinants of the repayment of mortgage loans in Ghana. The study used both secondary and primary data. The mixed-method approach was used for the study. The data collection instruments were interviews, focus group discussions and questionnaires. The study revealed that socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, sex distribution of respondents, educational level of respondents, marital status of respondents, occupational status of respondents, household size of respondents, the income of respondents are some of the factors that affect the repayment of mortgage loans in Ghana. The study revealed that borrowers who earned higher income had a better repayment performance as compared to low income earning borrowers. In addition, higher household sizes have lower repayment capacity and lower household sizes have higher repayment capacity. The study recommends that the government of Ghana should institute state bodies responsible for providing liquidity to mortgages and mortgage properties and buying mortgages during periods of rising interest rates is a way of creating a secondary mortgage market for the Ghanaian mortgage industry. Keywords: Determinants, Mortgage, Repayment, Ghana.

Mortgage Market Dynamics: Competition and Evolution

The mortgage industry is currently undergoing some significant changes, with declining origination volume, a shifting mix of originations with a much higher share of purchase loans, and other factors leading to growth in market share for independent mortgage bankers but declining profit margins across the board. These changes are leading to a sharper focus by policymakers and market participants on the independent mortgage banking business model. This article highlights the key features of the current environment, with specific focus on some of the differentiators across business models. The industry will evolve over the next few years in response to this challenging environment, toward lenders who can best control costs while meeting customer needs better than the competitors and hence gaining market share.

Standardization of Information and Financial Innovation

Mortgage securitization markets emerged as an extension of the primary mortgage lending markets. This created the need for standardization of information across these two contexts that would enable a collective and universal understanding of credit risk and its management. The securitization industry, however, instead of developing standardization management strategies that would support this vision, it rather chose to implement an organizing vision that was centered around operational efficiency and profit-making supported by a focus on functional specialization. The outcome was the fragmentation of the securitization supply chain via vertical disintegration, which undermined the unity of the risk analysis process. This chapter argues that the effects of technological standardization on innovation in the mortgage industry should be explored beyond a narrow focus on efficiency and profit in relation to an individual organization's business strategy; but rather within an extended scope that includes broader social and policy contexts that guide innovation.

Ben S. Bernanke in 2005

The case has been used in a first-year required course called Global Economies and Markets in a module on monetary policy. On October 24, 2005, President Bush nominated Ben S. Bernanke to be chairman of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System for a term of four years along with a 14-year term on the board of governors. With the U.S. Senate confirmation widely anticipated, Bernanke was expected to take over stewardship of the U.S. monetary policy from Chairman Alan Greenspan when he retired in January 2006. While the U.S. economy was in good shape at the end of 2005, Bernanke had to prepare to deal with two challenges when charting a course for managing U.S. monetary policy. First, the sharp rise in energy prices that began in 2002 had the potential to bring back the specter of inflation and dampen desired consumer and business spending. Second, the housing boom could turn into a housing bust, throwing the mortgage industry into turmoil and weakening consumer business confidence. There was also the possibility that the housing bust could affect broader financial markets. Bernanke had to consider his options for dealing with contingencies in the not-so-distant future.

Standardization of Information and Financial Innovation

Mortgage securitization markets emerged as an extension of the primary mortgage lending markets. This created the need for standardization of information across these two contexts that would enable a collective and universal understanding of credit risk and its management. The securitization industry, however, instead of developing standardization management strategies that would support this vision, it rather chose to implement an organizing vision that was centered around operational efficiency and profit-making supported by a focus on functional specialization. The outcome was the fragmentation of the securitization supply chain via vertical disintegration, which undermined the unity of the risk analysis process. This chapter argues that the effects of technological standardization on innovation in the mortgage industry should be explored beyond a narrow focus on efficiency and profit in relation to an individual organization's business strategy; but rather within an extended scope that includes broader social and policy contexts that guide innovation.

The Effect of Mergers in Search Markets: Evidence from the Canadian Mortgage Industry

We examine the relationship between concentration and price dispersion using variation induced by a merger in the Canadian mortgage market. Since interest rates are determined through a search and negotiation process, consolidation weakens consumers' bargaining positions. We use reduced-form techniques to estimate the mergers' distributional impact, and show that competition benefits only consumers at the bottom and middle of the transaction price distribution, and that mergers reduce the dispersion of prices. We illustrate that these effects can be explained by the presence of search frictions, and that the average effect of mergers on rates underestimates the increase in market power. (JEL G21, G34, K21, L13, L41)

Theory of Islamic consumer behaviour

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to propose a theory of Islamic consumer behaviour to explain the factors that influence the Islamic mortgage industry. Although previous works have shown that conventional marketing theories were, to a certain extent, able to predict factors influencing halal marketing and Islamic mortgage, these theories fail to capture or accommodate the Islamic perspectives of consumer behaviour. Conventional marketing theories have also been found to be inadequate to explain the Islamic mortgage preference among consumers. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing upon the Maqasid al-Shariah, this study develops an Maqasid al-Shariah index (MSI) and religious satisfaction (RS) for Islamic mortgage industry in Malaysia. These indexes are developed as the basis of the theory development in this setting. The model developed is later examined using survey data. Findings – This study reveals that education and RS are instrumental in determining the Islamic home financing preference. In contrast, justice and welfare are insignificantly related to the Islamic home financing preference. Religious satisfaction, to a certain extent, plays role not only as a mediator but also as a moderator. We find that RS has a full mediation effect on the relationship between welfare and willingness to consider applying Islamic mortgage. We discover justice is moderated by RS. Education and welfare however are not moderated. Originality/value – This study contributes to the development of an empirical Islamic framework in predicting consumers’ behaviour in an Islamic mortgage market using a Maqasid approach. This study is also pioneering in introducing two indexes, notably MSI and RS, and applying these indexes to Islamic home financing context.

AKM Mortgages, Inc.

ABSTRACT This case uses a real mortgage company that was once the tenth largest mortgage loan originator in the U.S. The case sheds light on some important accounting issues in the mortgage bank industry and on industry-specific business risks. Students are required to read AKM's financial statements; identify business risks associated with its business practices; find red flags from the multiple-period cash flow statements; and, finally, comment on its accounting of mortgage loans held for sale, mortgage loans held for investment, and securities. This financial statement analysis case can help senior-year accounting majors or graduate-level accounting or finance students to understand related accounting standards for the mortgage industry and probable earnings misstatements at mortgage banks. It also can serve as timely reading for students who are interested in the recent credit crisis.