The issue to be investigated is the ethics and effects of subprime lending on financial institutions, borrowers and stakeholders. The subprime mortgage market was created to provide borrowers with a FICO score below 570 access to home loans. Inconveniently, these loans represented a serious financial risk as most borrowers did not have the long-term income to pay off the high-interest rate loans. (Jennings, 2012) Subprime lending began as a generous and philanthropic idea. Giving people who had bad credit the opportunity to own a home regardless of their income or past credit problems showed compassion and care for the poor, middle class, and elderly who could not qualify for a home loan according to the previous strict lending standards. However, predatory lenders have used this vulnerable group's desire to live the American dream, to own a home, against them. Billions of dollars have been earned by lending companies and similar financial institutions by writing loans to relaxed standards for borrowers as quickly as possible. (Jennings, 2012) To make matters worse, lenders knowingly made loans to speculators who had no intention of living in that house; or at least no more than would be necessary to flip the property. In a market with rapidly rising property values, the negative impact of this activity has been completely obscured, yet lurking in the background is the market's only constant, what goes up must come down. Ethics of Mortgage Brokers The unethical aspect of this business practice is simple; that individual brokers and lending companies knew in advance that borrowers would not be able to keep up payments on these loans and that speculators would dangerously inflate the market. However, they were more interested in t...... middle of paper ......pperdine.edu/jbel/vol2/iss1/6Jennings, MM (2012). Business ethics, case studies and selected readings (seventh edition). Lynn, S. R. (2008, January). Reflections on the market correction. Mortgage Banking, 68.4, 82-84, 86-87. Retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com.proxy1.ncu.eduMorial, M. (2011, March 23). Enough with the lies about the financial meltdown. Michigan News. Retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com.proxy1.ncu.eduSale, H. A. (2011, March). The new “Public” body. St. Louis University Legal Studies Research Paper No. 11-04-01, 74, 137. Retrieved from: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1832619Walker, T. (2007, March 14). Lending problems spook market: Default problems in the subprime mortgage sector trigger a broad sell-off similar to the recession two weeks ago. The Atlanta Journal- Constitution, C (1). Retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com.proxy1.ncu.edu