Nearly 75 percent of consumers say banks and mortgage lenders and brokers are either "extremely responsible" or "very responsible" for the subprime mortgage crisis, the American Banker reports, while 60 percent assign that level of blame to the real estate industry and 58 percent do so for borrowers who took out loans they could not afford, according to a survey released by TNS North America.

The New York market research firm asked 2,500 people to rank on a four-point scale how responsible they thought each of eight groups was for causing the subprime mortgage crisis.

The survey found that Americans ranked the subprime crisis above global warming and the federal deficit among their most pressing concerns — though it ranked below terrorism, healthcare, the war in Iraq, the overall economy, and illegal immigration. Overall, the subprime mortgage crisis ranked sixth out of 10 potential issues of concern.

Seventy-six percent of those surveyed said the subprime crisis was "just as serious" as or "more serious" than the dot-com crash of 2000. Nearly half of those surveyed, however, said they could not accurately explain to a friend what a subprime mortgage is. The survey, conducted just after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates in September, also found that one-third of adults plan to cut back on spending because of the effects of the subprime mortgage crisis.

Source: www.creditandcollectionsworld.com

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