Household HSBC Watch

The Asian Banker is reporting that HSBC will offer two mortgage products as part of its new HSBC Premier service that will be launched in Japan on 31 January 2008. HSBC Smart Mortgage and HSBC Smart Investment Mortgage, available to all HSBC Premier customers, come with no maximum lending limit. There is a footnote at the bottom of HSBC’s self-serving “press release” - which looks more like an advertisement to me. The footnote says “The mortgage loans are subject to HSBC’s credit review and are available for up to 90% of the value of the mortgaged property as appraised by HSBC.”

Weren’t HSBC appraisals part of the United States subprime problem? Aren’t appraisals under scrutiny now? Lending standards? No maximum lending limit? On the surface most U.S. mortgages were not out of control at the beginning. One simply needs a foot in the door. No-doc liar loans were gently introduced later, and from 2005 until the collapse in 2007 lending seemed rosy to some and alarming to others.