學 院 專 欄 FACULTY COLUMN 新的字母時代 The New Alphabet Era 撰文 | 黎寧 Text by Rose, Neng Lai 中文翻譯 | 陳靜 Chinese translation by Ruby Chen 我第一次接觸“QE”是在小學的歷史課上，那 是「英國伊莉莎白女皇」的英文縮寫。雖然英 女王伊莉莎白二世仍在位，但現在很多人口裡 說的“QE1”和“QE2”卻不是指「英女王」而是 「量化寬鬆」，美國、英國和歐洲都通過ECB實 施的政策──等一下！ECB是什麼？那是歐 洲央行的英文縮寫。那IMF又是什麼？是國際 貨幣基金組織的英文縮寫。那TARP和LTRO 呢？⋯⋯ 不經意間我們已進入一個新時代： 字母時代。這個字母時代的成因是近年的全 球金融危機，全球金融危機這個人為災難則 是由兩個「字母國家」— U.S.A（. 美國）和 U.K（. 英國）—引起的。本文將從金融的角度向 大家介紹字母時代，希望大家喜歡。 全球金融危機（GFC）源自美國：2007年，美 國樓市在惡化了一年半後，終於誘發美國金融 危機。2008年9月15日，雷曼兄弟控股公司 （有意思的是，除了雷曼兄弟之外，其他陷入 困境的銀行都有英文縮寫，如香港上海滙豐銀 行有限公司HSBC，瑞士聯合銀行UBS，法國 巴黎國家銀行BNP等）宣告破產，對金融危機 帶來災難性的影響。 為什麼美國樓市惡化會對全球經濟影響如此巨 大呢？事情的起因卻是簡單的一個「貪」字。20 世紀90年代末至21世紀初，美國政府決定實現 「居者有其屋」的目標，於是銀行降低利率，按 揭貸款也輕而易舉。按揭貸款評估承保變成了 獨立的過程。要明白這過程，不妨想像一下： 假如你不是很有錢而又準備買房地產，一般你 會用積蓄支付首期，剩餘部分則向銀行貸款。 貸款前，銀行會進行風險評估，確保你有能力 按時供款。貸款過程被分成幾個環節，每個環 節又由不同實體負責。在此情況下，貸款按揭 發起人要做的其實只是將貸款申請交接至下一 個環節，與此同時為樓宇購買者取得資金去支 The !rst time I learnt about “QE” was in a history course in primary school, and it was a reference to Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom. To date, many people have used the words “QE1” and “QE2” not because they want to talk about the queens, even though QE2 is still reigning. Rather, “QE” is the abbreviation for “Quantitative Easing”. The USA, the UK, and Europe, through ECB, have all done it. Pause for a minute! What is ECB? The Europe Central Bank! What is IMF? The International Monetary Fund! How about TARP and LTRO? Without noticing you have entered a new age – the alphabet era – that was formed by the most recent man-made disaster of GFC, created by the alphabet countries: USA and UK! This article aims to walk you through this era from a !nancial angle. Hope you will enjoy it! The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) started in the United States of America (USA, the !rst alphabet country in this article) in 2007 after its housing market deteriorated for about 1.5 years, and reached the disastrous climax following the collapse of Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2008. Interestingly, unlike other banks that also experienced trouble, like HSBC (the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Corporation), or UBS (the Union Bank of Switzerland), or BNP (Banque Nationale de Paris), Lehman Brothers does not have an abbreviated name. So why did a deteriorating housing market have such a tremendous effect on the global economy? The story begins with more alphabets, although the cause is best summed up by the simple word “GREED”. Back in the late 1990s and the early 2000s, the USA government decided that more people should own their own homes. To make this possible, interest rates were reduced and mortgages were made readily available. Coupled with this was the unbundling of the mortgage underwriting process. To understand this, imagine you are about to buy an apartment. Assuming you are not wealthy, you would tend to use your savings for the down-payment and then seek a mortgage loan from a bank which will check to ensure you could make monthly payments on time. When the underwriting process is unbundled, as was the case in the USA, the process is broken down into several steps, with a different entity responsible for each individual step. The mortgage originator only originated the mortgage by passing the application down the line to the next step while getting the money for the buyer to pay the seller. Subsequent collection of monthly payments from the mortgagors was handled by the 42 umagazine | issue 07
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