Home Mortgage Bank

Location :

2nd Floor, NIBTT Building,#14-19 Queen’s Park East, Port of Spain

In 1982, the International Finance Corporation (the “IFC”), the private enterprise financing arm of the World Bank Group, examined the housing situation in Trinidad and Tobago and reported that there was an acute need for affordable middle-income housing and that whilst there was a substantial number and variety of private and public sector financial institutions actively engaged in mortgage lending, the volume of lending was substantially below potential demand for mortgage loans, and appeared inadequate for future housing needs.

The IFC indicated that one of the ways to remedy the situation lay in the creation of an organized secondary market for mortgage loans. The purchase and sale of mortgage loans through such a market would provide liquidity to the financial institutions engaged in mortgage lending thus enabling more mortgage loans to be made.

To create and activate an organized secondary mortgage market, it was proposed that a privately managed mortgage bank be established whose primary function would be to buy and sell mortgage loans in order that financial institutions participating in the market could have the funds required to meet the demand for mortgage loans.

In initiating a secondary mortgage market, the supply of funds for construction would be augmented as through its commitments for future purchases of mortgages, the Mortgage Bank assures lenders of a market for their mortgages, thereby encouraging them to commit additional funds to mortgage loans. The Mortgage Bank would also contribute to the development and growth of the capital market through the introduction of medium-term and long-term mortgage bonds which are expected to increase both the volume and term of domestic savings.

The Mortgage Bank commenced business on 22nd October, 1986.