Looming on the Western Horizon

The crisis in the West will hit the Russian mortgage market the hardest. There are several reasons for that. First, Russian banks had serious intentions of securitizing the mortgage credits they issued in order to continue to increase their volume. A business will come to a standstill without that and its competitors will eat it up. Securitization is much harder now and its cost, approaching 15 percent annually, is critical for the market. In Russia, if mortgage credits are taken out at 15-percent, it will only be unwillingly.