Arrears are an important indicator of the financial health of households and so have implications for our assessment of current economic conditions and the economic outlook. They clearly are also an important indicator of the financial health of those writing mortgages, be it banks or non-banks.
I will draw on material published in the October  Financial Stability Review and a speech given by my colleague Jonathan Kearns. [1]  The mortgage arrears rate, at 1 per cent, is low by both historical and international standards. Arrears in the US peaked at around 10 per cent in the financial crisis.