Mortgage underwriting

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Mortgage underwriting is the process a lender uses to determine if the risk (especially the risk that the borrower will default[1] ) of offering a mortgage loan to a particular borrower is acceptable. Most of the risks and terms that underwriters consider fall under the three C’s of underwriting: credit, capacity and collateral. (In the UK they are known as the three canons of credit - capacity, collateral, and character.)

To help the underwriter assess the quality of the loan, banks and lenders create guidelines and even computer models that analyze the various aspects of the mortgage and provide recommendations regarding the risks involved. However, it is always up to the underwriter to make the final decision on whether to approve or decline a loan. Critics have suggested that the complexity inherent in mortgage securitization can limit investors' ability to monitor risk, and that competitive mortgage securitization markets with multiple securitizers may be particularly prone to sharp declines in underwriting standards as lenders reach for revenue and market share. Private, competitive mortgage securitization is believed to have played an important role in the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis. [2]

Risks for the lender[edit]






See also[edit]


  1. ^ RG Quercia, MA Stegman (1992), "Residential mortgage default: A review of the literature" (PDF), Journal of Housing Research 
  2. ^ Michael Simkovic, Competition and Crisis in Mortgage Securitization