ABSTRACT
Th ere is no doubt that the momentum of the fi nancial crisis and the number of major fi nancial institutions with signifi cant levels of exposure to subprime debt took everyone by surprise, albeit arguably this should not have been the case. For many years, global fi nancial markets had, as a result of innovative legal developments combined with technological changes, been operating in a fi nancially liquid environment, where mortgages were able to be packaged and securitized into investment products, which were then marketed and found a high level of demand. Th is new “market” had one major downside-the opportunity for those marketing the products to make large sums of money, dependent of course on the number of mortgage loans that could be generated. Th e temptation therefore was in the following form: create and market as many mortgage loans as quickly as possible and in the process circumvent the need to retain the credit risk in relation to these mortgages.
