The financial crisis that shook the US financial system 14 years ago made people wonder how the monitoring systems failed to detect it in time. The crash revealed failings of the rating agencies, government departments and big banks. Mortgages are again dominating the news. The housing prices are skyrocketing and the interest rates are quite high. It is time to ask what caused the 2008 recession and if better detection systems are in place to monitor the markets. More importantly, can the latest fintech technologies like blockchain prevent such a crisis?

1. How Blockchain Can Transform
Mortgage Industry?
The financial crisis that shook the US financial system 14 years ago made people
wonder how the monitoring systems failed to detect it in time. The crash revealed
failings of the rating agencies, government departments and big banks. Mortgages are
again dominating the news. The housing prices are skyrocketing and the interest rates
are quite high. It is time to ask what caused the 2008 recession and if better detection
systems are in place to monitor the markets. More importantly, can the latest fintech
technologies like blockchain prevent such a crisis?
Bahaa Abdul Hussien lists out the causes for the 2008 crash based on his real time
experience. The reasons for this crash were both human and technical deficiencies.
Trusted rating agencies failed to do their job. They provided a shield that prevented the
failings to become known. These institutions wanted to maintain their market share,
gain higher profits, and keep their financial backers from knowing the truth. The ratings
were artificially inflated, making the inquiry committee claim how these agencies
became the enabler of the financial crisis.
A major factor behind this crash was the ineffective underlying technology. It was
incapable of handling the securitization structures. Due to this, the faults of the system
did not come to the fore. It prevented sub-prime mortgages from moving to the
foreclosure stage. Instead, defaulting mortgages remained in limbo but valid through
legal contracts. The true condition of the debt market was not known until the total
collapse.
Using Blockchain Technology to Prevent Such a Crisis
Many regulatory mechanisms have been put in place to prevent hiding of such financial
irregularities. However, the market continues to depend on the old technologies, making
it vulnerable to the same risks that led to the 2008 market crash. The transparent risk
assessment feature is still missing from the system. The monitoring systems to issue
warnings about the upcoming threats are still not reliable.
Why Use Blockchain for the Mortgage Industry?
Bahaa Abdul Hussein puts forward the point that the main innovation of this
technology lies in its smart contracts – the transparent code bits that cannot be altered.
A market system that uses smart contracts is superior to the existing monitoring
technologies. The secure contracts not only allow transparent financial transactions but
also offer faster data processing. Financial institutions can no longer hide the reality.

2. Even when a top rating agency gives AAA rating to a bond, investors can go through
the underlying components and evaluate the bond’s real value.
Before blockchain can be used to improve the security of the mortgage industry, it is
important to improve the blockchain infrastructure itself. At present, multiple blockchains
operate in their own ways. It is important to first have a single interoperable blockchain
system that offers higher efficiency and security.
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