The U.S. needs national standards for mortgages and mortgage underwriting, said Robert P. Kelly, the chief executive of Bank of New York Mellon Corp.
"If we don't, I think we're just going to create the next bubble in housing 10 years from now," Kelly said Monday at a Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association conference in New York.
The country would benefit from tighter standards around documentation, appraisals, down payments and broker qualifications, Kelly said. He also suggested a system where banks would hold on to half of the mortgages they make, with the other half sold through securitization. Americans should consider their homes a place to live rather than "an asset where you make bets on the value of housing," said Kelly. a former executive of Toronto-Dominion Bank and Wachovia Corp.
