316
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Securitization allows banks to repackage and resell debt, famously explained by actress Margot Robbie in a bubble bath in the film “The Big Short.”

The European Union wants to breathe new life into a financial practice most commonly associated with causing the 2008 financial crisis as it tries to jump-start banks’ lending to the economy.

On Tuesday, the European Commission will publish a package of legislation aiming to revive the industry of “securitization,” after strict postcrisis laws almost stamped out the use of the practice in the bloc.

Securitization is the practice where banks repackage and resell debt, famously explained by actress Margot Robbie in a bubble bath in the film "The Big Short." The engineering allows banks to move some assets off their balance sheets, giving them more space to extend new loans.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] [email protected] 41 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Securitization is a tool and only part of why the markets collapsed. The reduction of the problem to securitization fails to recognize the bad loans and ineffective ratings given to collateralized securities, and the hidden tranches not disclosed to investors.

If your mortgage/loan market isn't fraudulent then you don't have underlying assets with impossibly high risk. If the ratings agencies properly rate securities then investors know what the risk is. And if the government regulates the issuance of these securities through prospectuses (which they do now) then investors will know what's in them.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 21 hours ago

It also assumes that businesses won't do anything they think they can get away with if they think it will make a buck. Given just how many times that has happened, saying regulators will catch any attempts to sidestep those rules is fairly optimistic, in my opinion.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago

It's the opposite. Regulation assumes business will do anything they think they can get away with if it will make a buck. A lack of regulation assumes companies won't do those things.

People think "regulators" allowed this to happen, but actually as "regulators" are agencies established by the government that act upon law. At the time of the 2008 financial crash there were limited or few laws (i.e. regulations) on derivatives. It's law makers that refused to act.

It seems people are largely unaware of the myriad of regulatory changes that came after 2008 and bernie that applied to derivatives and customer/investor protection in general.

The same set of factors that created 2008 is no longer applicable as the environment has changed. There will surely be new regulatory weaknesses that need to be addressed

[-] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago

Everyone should meet someone that worked in the mortgage industry pre 2008. The number of things that were not only allowed, but perfectly legal were absurd.

  • appraisal was basically a bribe for any number you wanted.
  • no document loans were far more available for anyone.
  • mortgages had no real chain of custody after sale.
  • there wasn't any real way to verify the risk of a mortgage security pre 2008.
  • variable rates didn't have lifetime caps on rates, and reporting the details of how they functioned weren't required.
[-] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago

A lack of regulations can mean "anything goes," as in unregulated, or "nothing of this sort is acceptable," as in illegal. Checking if the illegal thing has been done is often easier than checking if the regulated thing has been done correctly, so making things that are easily abused illegal makes sense if the consequences of breaking those regulations, such as a global depression, are too great.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago

Financial regulations are written in law, and thus illegal to violate.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago

I see you're focusing on semantics, and not the issues raised, which i can only assume is because you have no valid response to the issues and not the wording.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago

It's not semantics when what you're saying doesn't make sense and is contradictory to reality.

Actually, I am not sure what issue you're even raising because of how poorly you communicated.

I thought about not responding at all, tbh, but then thought that it's clear you think there is a some sort of material difference between regulation and law.

Checking if the illegal thing has been done is often easier than checking if the regulated thing has been done correctly,

pointedly incorrect. and thats my point that checking the illegal thing is the same thing as checking the regulated thing. but you assert there is some difference.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

their point is unambiguous to me. it is that it is more complex to check if something was done according to a regulation, compared to checking if it was done at all.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago

Then allow me to rephrase. Checking if the forbidden thing has been done is often easier than checking if the thing which is allowed, but with many caveats and conditions, has been done correctly.

load more comments (17 replies)
this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2025
316 points (98.5% liked)

World News

47597 readers
4230 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS