Professor Gregory Connor:

One of the reasons the mortgages became more risky is they needed to generate a place to put the funds. They were pulling in this capital bonanza of €158 billion into the economy and then they had to place it profitably so they were looking for opportunities. SMEs were not providing opportunities. They would have preferred SME lending if they could have found it. Many of the banks were probably looking for SME opportunities. They were also looking to issue mortgages. It was very easy. They were encouraging mortgages. Property development was the worst lending but the most available. Many well connected business people wanted to be billionaires and were willing to take the risk, take the money and develop property. They found the channel that was accessible to them.