by Calculated Risk on 8/19/2007 02:49:00 AM

From the NY Times: Loan by Loan, the Making of a Credit Squeeze. Here is an excerpt on the bankruptcy laws:

Congress is looking hard at changing the bankruptcy law so courts can restructure home loans as they do other personal loans like credit card debt. The goal, proponents say, would be to update the bankruptcy code in line with realities of the modern mortgage market.

In Chapter 13, a borrower’s mortgage obligation remains intact. The most that a person gets is extra time to catch up on payments in arrears, but every nickel on the mortgage must be paid.

The bankruptcy code went through a major revision two years ago, in what was seen as a triumph for banks and other lenders. The revision made it harder for people to declare bankruptcy, especially a Chapter 7, or “straight bankruptcy,” in which everything is liquidated, by setting tighter income and means tests to qualify. The 2005 amendments also set more stringent rules for writing down unsecured debt, notably credit card debt.

PROTECTION for the mortgage lender has been unchanged since the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978. At the time, first-time home buyers paid about 20 percent of the value of the houses upfront, got fixed-rate mortgages, and the lenders were local bankers — serious, skeptical types who scrutinized borrowers. Homeowners agreed to mortgages they could afford. When they ran into financial troubles, it was typically because of some unforeseen event in their lives like the loss of a job, an illness or a divorce. The mortgage was rarely the problem.

Yet the mortgage often is the financial culprit these days. That is particularly true of lending in the subprime market of zero-down loans with terms fixed for two years and then floating rates, arranged by aggressive national mortgage brokers and bankers who earn lucrative fees.

“The bankruptcy law was written for a different world, and we want to give the bankruptcy courts, and creditors, more flexible tools to work with borrowers to save their homes,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois.

In September, Mr. Durbin, the Democratic whip, plans to propose amendments to the bankruptcy code, in a bill called the Helping Families Avoid Foreclosure Act. It would, among other things, permit writing down loans and stretching out payment terms.

Some bankruptcy experts agree that it is time to change the law. “Our bankruptcy laws are not well designed to deal with a massive wave of mortgage foreclosures,” said Elizabeth Warren, a professor at the Harvard Law School. In particular, Ms. Warren said, bankruptcy courts should be able to rewrite mortgages in line with market conditions.

The banking industry, which pushed hard for the tougher bankruptcy law in 2005, wants no easing up now.