Bankers Irony to lower rates and ask Finance Minister to tighen the rules....

I simply had to share this article by Vernon Clement Jones from Key Media for MortgagebrokerNews.ca
*** Sorry No French Version***

Flaherty to bankers: Pull the other one

_{By Vernon Clement Jones | 22/03/2012 8:00:00 PM |} 

The irony that bankers dangling some of the lowest rates in history are also asking Ottawa to tighten mortgage rules hasn't been lost on the Finance minister, now suggesting he'd rather sit pat.

“I find it a bit off that some of the bank executives are taking the position that the Minister of Finance or the government somehow should tell them how to run their business,” Jim Flaherty told reporters just outside Ottawa Thursday. “It’s their market. It’s not my market.
“They decide what they want to charge in interest rates.”

While analysts are still parsing through those comments, a consensus is emerging that the government will hold off on further tightening of the country’s mortgage rules, at least for now.

TD’s chief economist, among others, had urged Flaherty to use his budget address next week to announce one of three moves to slow demand for housing.

On Thursday, the Minister hinted at none of those – a shorter amortization, a higher minimum down payment or new stress tests for borrowers.