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Ecuador law would forgive debt on defaulted mortgages of first-timebuyers by wgre ethbtn
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Ecuador law would forgive debt on defaulted mortgages of first-timebuyers by WGRE ETHBTN
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Article Posted: 10/26/2012 |
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Ecuador law would forgive debt on defaulted mortgages of first-timebuyers |
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Business,Business News,Business Opportunities
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QUITO, Ecuador – Ecuador's legislature has passed legislation that would requirebanks to forgive any outstanding debt on mortgages for first-timehome buyers of properties worth up to $146,000 if they default andforfeit a home. The measure, aimed at discouraging a real estate bubble of the typethat has caused so much pain in the United States and Europe, wonpraise from many Ecuadoreans on Wednesday. The country's bankingindustry did not immediately comment. Approved Tuesday evening by a 68-21 vote, the bill also coversloans by banks to first-time purchasers of automobiles that cost upto $29,200. President Rafael Correa, a leftist economist whose social spendinghas made him enormously popular, praised the legislation but didnot say whether he would sign it or possibly seek amendments.
The president, who constantly rails against Ecuador's "oligarchs"and has tried to blunt their influence, accused the lawmakers whovoted against the measure of "defending the bankers, not thedepositors." The law appears to be unique. San Diego State University economist Michael Lea, a real estatespecialist, said the only similar measure he was aware of was thecreation of a national housing bank by the leftist Sandinistamovement in Nicaragua after it won power in 1979. Ecuador's Association of Private Banks did not comment on the newlegislation, though its director, Cesar Robalino, previously saidthe measure would discourage new home construction and make gettingmortgages more difficult for consumers. Pablo Davalos, an economist at Catholic University, said the movewould be good for most Ecuadoreans.
"This law is positive for the consumer and negative for the banker,who now has to increase his reserves and that means less liquidityand less profit for the bankers," Davalos said. Lea said the housing bank created by the Sandinistas turned out tobe "fairly ugly" as people were allowed to essentially stop payingtheir debt and the government had to step in and make up theshortfall. He called the Ecuadorean law "a big deterrent to anyfuture lending." The bill's sponsor, Paco Velasco of Correa's governing AlianzaPais, told reporters that if Spain had passed a similar law adecade ago it could have avoided its costly real estate bubble. Spain is now the focus of Europe's debt crisis, its banks burdenedwith tens of billions of dollars in bad loans from the bubble thatburst in 2008, mostly affecting Europe and the United States.
Blamed for the bubble, in the U.S. in particular, wereprofit-hungry mortgage lenders who made loans to poorly qualifiedbuyers and financial institutions that bundled those low-qualitymortgages together and sold them as financial products whose valuelater plummeted. No such bubble occurred in Latin America, where banks were moreconservative. Housing prices in Ecuador have thus never fallen tolevels where banks, after recovering foreclosed homes, have goneafter other assets of those who defaulted. "This law is good because often we debtors don't have secure workor income.
So in the worst of cases, where one must return anapartment, at least they don't suffer further," said NataliaQuintero, a secretary in a lawyer's office who is buying anapartment in Quito's center. Another new home-buyer, communications engineer Eduardo Benitez,was also pleased with the law. "Whatever law protects the commonpeople is always welcome," he said. In Ecuador, 63 percent of families own their own home, accordingthe U.N.'s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.Mortgage interest rates range between 8.5 percent and 10.25percent, and home mortgage lending has been growing at 20.7 percenta year. Analyst Risa Grais-Targow of the Eurasia Group, said she believesit is part of Correa's preparations for a re-election bid nextyear.
"A move to protect consumers obviously plays nicely to a lot of hispotential voter base," she said. "We've seen a recent track recordof (him) infringing on or targeting the financial sector." That includes the passage of a law that prohibits bankingexecutives from sitting on the boards of corporations in otherbusiness sectors. A presidential election date is not set and Correa, in office sinceJanuary 2007, has not declared his candidacy. ___ Associated Press writer Gonzalo Solano reported this story in Quitoand Frank Bajak reported from Lima, Peru. AP writer Alex Veiga inLos Angeles, California, contributed to this report. I am Packaging & Paper writer, reports some information about plastic pallet containers , spice racks wall.
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