Today, those clouds loom because of the subprime loans and the credit crisis.

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In that sense, credit applications aren't much different from the so-called stated-income mortgages that came to be called "liar loans" during the subprime crisis.

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In America and Germany, where many subprime loans have ended up on banks' balance sheets, the liquidity crisis has been managed smoothly, whereas in Britain, with low arrears, a bank with a high-quality loan book nonetheless found itself in a situation where its retail depositors temporarily felt threatened.

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Jim Johnson had received several favorable rates on loans for houses from Countrywide Financial, which is now the target of federal scrutiny in the subprime mortgage crisis.

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Before the financial crisis, some private lenders stoked the frenzy by securitising risky student loans rather like subprime mortgages.

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