Given significant growth in banks' HELOC portfolios over the past several years, the agencies have been concerned for some time that banks' HELOC underwriting placed insufficient emphasis on the creditworthiness of borrowers and placed too much weight on the value of the collateral during a booming housing market.
In 2005, the agencies issued joint guidance that outlined these concerns and set forth supervisory expectations for risk  4  BIS Review 26/2008  management of home equity lending activities.