What are Debt Capital Markets?
Debt capital markets are a term given to financial securities or loans that can be traded on the debt market. They include bonds and other types of loans like mortgages. There is absolutely no regulation in relation to how much interest lenders can charge borrowers — even if legislation does exist limiting how much certain groups of people should reasonably pay for borrowing money (i.e. debt ceiling laws, which aren’t even enforced). In other words, there are no limits to what the terms of a loan can be, and the regulations are all in the hands of the lender observes Fintalent’s debt capital markets consultants.
Debt capital markets have been around since long before any modern financial institutions existed. They were created by wealthy individuals and banks during times of war, as a way to finance wars and build infrastructure that would benefit long term growth in larger countries as well as small nations. But debt capital markets transcend even national boundaries — they can be traded all over the world with ease right now (without any regulation), and this could potentially be one of their greatest dangers for future generations.
Since debt capital markets lack regulation, the only thing that stands between lenders and borrowers is the quality of the paper being offered. Loan agreements are usually quite a bit more favorable to creditors (lenders) than they are to debtors (borrowers), but especially when it comes to personal loans or mortgages. This is a very touchy subject in western countries where this practice is commonplace, but there are a few select countries that have implemented some laws on how quickly interest can be charged on loans and how much interest can be charged.
Debt capital markets in the modern world are all about money; banks want your money and investors need ways to protect their investments. They do this through using debt capital markets to offer loans with astronomical interest rates (which can be as high as 40%), and then dumping them on unsuspecting governments, businesses, and individuals when things go south.
The only way people can begin to protect themselves from these types of loans is learning how they work, so that you can minimize your risk of taking one out. For most people in the western world, taking out a loan is usually something they are forced into doing — loans are all but required for getting credit cards, buying houses or cars, starting businesses, and more. So you need to be prepared for this, and learn exactly what happens when you take on a debt capital market loan.
What are the risks in debt capital markets?
Unfortunately it’s not uncommon to hear that people that are taking out debt capital markets are being “ripped off,” or “double dipping.” The difference between understanding these loans and actually taking them out is quite large — lenders know that they can often get away with treating borrowers any way they please, so there is little incentive for them to work hard at finding good terms (the borrower always buys into the lie that the lender works hard for good terms).
Debt capital markets also come with extremely high interest rates. This is one of the reasons that they often have such unfavorable terms — the temptation to charge super high interest rates is very high in this type of loan environment. But there are different types of debt capital markets, and they all come with different risks to the borrower.
Unsecured Debt: Unsecured debt is a term used to describe debt that can’t be paid back using collateral (in other words, you could lose your assets in order to pay off a loan). The most common types of unsecured debt include credit cards, medical bills and personal loans.
Secured Debt: Secured debt is a term used to describe debt that can be paid off using collateral. It’s also called collateralized debt, or secured loans. The most common types of secured debt include mortgages and automobiles.
What are the risks in secured debt?
While many states have implemented some regulations on how much interest should be charged on a mortgage (if you are shopping around for a home loan, you’ll hear it referred to as the APR), there is no legislation controlling interest rates on secured loans — which means there are no limits to what an individual or business can charge you for borrowing money. And there is no legal limit to how much an individual or business can charge a borrower.
There are some state laws that are intended to make sure lenders don’t take advantage of borrowers, but most of these laws start with the idea of protecting debtors, which is the total opposite of what debt capital markets were originally designed for — to protect creditors. It’s really not surprising that legislation like this comes about in response to predatory lending practices out there (as it is for other types of loans as well). But since it’s a law that protects borrowers, there’s no way for them to know about it and thus they must rely on their lender to deliver.
If you’re a borrower that is being charged interest and fees on a secured loan that were not outlined in your original agreement, then you might be a victim of predatory lending. In this case it’s important to know what was actually agreed upon, so that you can seek legal recourse or at least demand that your lender is held accountable. You also want to make sure that the lender isn’t breaking any of the laws in your state.
What are the risks in unsecured debt?
One of the risks with a non-guaranteed loan is that you will not be able to pay it back — period. So keep this in mind and always read the fine print carefully before signing any agreements. If lenders know that you cannot pay them back, they also have less of an incentive for providing you with good terms. This can be a particular issue when it comes to personal loans and mortgages — if something goes wrong and your lender can’t force you to pay, they can just foreclose on your property or grab everything in your name that they can get their hands on (and there’s nothing stopping them).
