Banking Bonuses and the Financial Crisis

However, hope might be on the horizon for the victims of the mortgage disaster of 2007/2008. Home buyers who were foreclosed upon years ago, or boomerang buyers, are beginning to be eligible to buy homes again. While some feel hope after feeling bamboozled by lenders and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, some feel anxious and fearful of the thought of buying again. Yet there are lessons that have been learned by the mortgage meltdown. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provided a lesson for the

The Royal Bank of Scotland - just like many other banks and businesses - paid out its managers considerable bonuses for their performances. Managers at RBS started maximising their bonuses by aggressive actions such as take overs and investing in complex financial products. These actions caused the profits of RBS to grow rapidly, which meant high bonuses for the managers. These actions, however, also meant the stability and financial safety of RBS on the long-term got worse and worse. This was not a problem for the managers as they had already earned their bonuses. A different bonus structure probably would have prevented the reckless actions of the RBS managers.

A moral hazard is an occasion in which there is a lack of incentives to prevent against possible risks because one is protected from the consequences that could occur. Such a moral hazard can regularly occur in a crisis in terms of how people in higher positions react to handling such a situation. If someone like a banker has the confidence that they would be bailed out if a crisis occurs it provides them with an incentive to practice risker business practices. In the situation of a crisis that is already underway the government is unable to let large and prominent financial institutions fail. As a result they must bail them out and in such an action they create a moral hazard. It provides the financial sector an incentive to practice

I would argue that the unlimited upside and downside of a manager’s bonus potential based on a single business unit’s performance causes great chaos because it may be driven by factors beyond one’s control and not necessarily as the result of “true” strong performance. Yes, the upside is great! In 2000, the Dermatology group stands to pocket 200+% of their target bonus due to a competitive exit. However, Dermatology’s favorable EVA was driven by unsustainable share gains, a fluke in the market.

I appreciate that the banking sector is vital to the strong health and growth of our nation’s economy and directly affects each of us, however, many of these financial institutions took the funds and immediately paid out senior executive bonuses instead of using the money to back loans to the public. These executive bonuses were public record and created a massive outcry from the taxpayers, but even this seemingly greedy use of power was overlooked by the federal and state governments.

The housing crisis of the late 2000s rocked the economy and changed the landscape of the real estate business for years to come. Decades of people purchasing houses unfordable houses and properties with lenient loans policies led to a collective housing bubble. When the banking system faltered and the economy wilted, interest rates were raised, mortgages increased, and people lost their jobs amidst the chaos. This all culminated in tens of thousands of American losing their houses to foreclosures and short sales, as they could no longer afford the mortgage payments on their homes. The United States entered a recession and homeownership no longer appeared to be a feasible goal as many questioned whether the country could continue to support a middle-class. Former home owners became renters and in some cases homeless as the American Dream was delayed with no foreseeable return. While the future of the economy looked bleak, conditions gradually improved. American citizens regained their jobs, the United States government bailed out the banking industry, and regulations were put in place to deter such events as the mortgage crash from ever taking place again. The path to homeowner ship has been forever altered, as loans in general are now more difficult to acquire and can be accompanied by a substantial down payment.

When the housing bubble came tumbling down, there were high defaults rates on the electorate and this led to the emergence of high risk borrowers (Bianco, 2008). These were people with a questionable financial history and may have lacked the sufficient means to sustain their mortgage payments and hence, went under. This occasioned massive loses to all the players in the housing sector. The worst hit was the lenders and the various investors.

The financial crisis emerged because of an excessive deregulation of business operation of financial institutions and of abusing the securitization mechanism in the absence of clearly defined rules to regulate this area in the American mortgage market (Krstić, Jemović, & Radojičić, 2013). Deregulation gives larger banks the opportunity to loosen underwriting lender guidelines and generate increase opportunity for homeownership (Kroszner & Strahan, 2013). After deregulation, banks utilized many versions of mortgage loans. Mortgage loans such as subprime and Alternative-A paper loans became available for borrowers challenged to find mortgage lenders before deregulation (Elbarouki, 2016; Palmer, 2015). The housing market has been severely affected by fluctuating interest rates and the requirement of large down payment (Follain, & Giertz, 2013). The subprime lending crisis has taken a toll on the nation’s economy since 2007. Individuals who lacked sufficient credit ratings or down payments resorted to subprime mortgages to finance their homes Defaults on subprime and other mortgages precipitated the foreclosure crisis, which contributed to the recent recession and national financial crisis (Odetunde, 2015). Subprime mortgages were appropriate for borrowers with substandard credit and Alternate-A paper loans were

Also contributing to the outcome of the power struggle were structural features that existed across the financial industry. The whole industry is governed and motivated by profits generated through individual contribution irrespective of the firm’s net performance. This particular industry structure results in the classic inter departmental tensions to maximize the individual department’s profits. To a certain extent, Lehman had to comply with rest of the companies by creating the isolated departmental structure to maintain its top performers. As a result, when a department creates 60-80% of the firm’s profit, the power shifts to the department making the most money. Lehman could have created an alternate compensation strategy to reduce the potential for power struggle between the departments. For example, rather

When the housing bubble burst in 2007, 7.3 million borrowers lost their homes due to foreclosure or short sale. These “boomerang buyers” are slowly but surely recovering from financial setbacks and reentering the housing market. Conventional lenders have seasoning requirements that prevent buyers from obtaining a new mortgage until they have repaired their credit: a seven-year window for foreclosures and four years for short sales.

When the Stock Market crashed in the late 2000s, millions were forced to leave their homes by means of foreclosure. Now, after many hardships, the economy is on the rise; and the housing market is making a comeback. Its previous victims are beginning to recover and start fresh in this young economy. The low interest rates and surplus of homes have made the once expensive houses more affordable to those who are seeking to restart. Although these “boomerang buyers” are able to afford these homes, their past record of foreclosure has hurt their credit score which makes it difficult to acquire loans in this cautious market. However, there are several steps such people can take and many methods they can

Quickly these corporations became known as the Fallen Angels and they were looking to rebound in any way possible. Operating managers at the time believed the corporations would rebound fairly easily because corporations would have no choice but to put all their attention on controlling their debt. However, in a situation such as this, close precision and execution is required otherwise the smallest mistake can lead to failure. According to Warren Buffet, “a plan that requires dodging them all is a plan for disaster.” The accumulation of debt continued to rise and not even the healthiest of corporations could obtain the capital to finance it. Even though businesses continued to suffer from accumulating debt, Investment Bankers noted that researchers found over time “higher interest rates received from low grade bonds had more than compensated for their higher rate of default.” From this information, Investment Bankers saw this accumulation of debt as an opportunity for investors. They concluded it was beneficial to have a diversified portfolio of junk bonds because the returns would be higher than a portfolio of high grade bonds. However Warren Buffet disagrees and discovered a hole in this fundamental approach by the Investment Bankers.

The recent financial crisis has a huge impact on systemic Important Financial Institutions; it’s distressing effect can be felt in almost every business area and process of a bank. A fairly large literature investigates the impact of financial crisis on large, complex and interconnected banks. The great recession did affect banks in different ways, depending on the funding capability of each bank. Kapan and Minoiu (2013) find that banks that were ex ante more dependent on market funding and had lower structural liquidity reduced supply of credit more than other banks during crisis. The ability of banks to generate interest income during the financial crisis was hampered because there was a vast reduction in bank lending to individuals and

Extensive research has determined that the banking industry is in an unstable state. The industry’s profits have

One of the first indications of the late 2000 financial crisis that led to downward spiral known as the “Recession” was the subprime mortgages; known as the “mortgage mess”. A few years earlier the substantial boom of the housing market led to the uprising of mortgage loans. Because interest rates were low, investors took advantage of the low rates to buy homes that they could in return ‘flip’ (reselling) and homeowners bought homes that they typically wouldn’t have been able to afford. High interest rates usually keep people from borrowing money because it limits the amount available to use for an investment. But the creation of the subprime mortgage