For other uses of the term "NINA", see Nina

Nina

Nina is a feminine given name.-Acronyms:*National Iraqi News Agency, an Iraqi news service*No Income No Asset, a mortgage concept*No Irish Need Apply, an anti-Irish racism phrase found in some 19th century employment ads-Places:...

No Income No Asset (NINA), No Income No Job or Asset (NINJA) or simply Nina Loan is a term used in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 mortgage industry to describe one of many documentation types which lenders may allow when underwriting

Underwriting

Underwriting refers to the process that a large financial service provider uses to assess the eligibility of a customer to receive their products . The name derives from the Lloyd's of London insurance market...

 a mortgage

Mortgage loan

A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...

.

NINA programs are ostensibly created for those with hard to verify incomes (waiters, etc.) but in actuality have been popularly used in situations where aggressive mortgage lenders and brokers did not want any trouble qualifying otherwise non-qualifying loans, thus becoming a significant factor in the subprime lending crisis. A significant number of NINA loans were never possible for the applicant to repay and have resulted in defaults for this reason, as laid out in detail by investigative reporters, including the reporting of This American Life

This American Life

This American Life is a weekly hour-long radio program produced by WBEZ and hosted by Ira Glass. It is distributed by Public Radio International on PRI affiliate stations and is also available as a free weekly podcast. Primarily a journalistic non-fiction program, it has also featured essays,...

 and Planet Money

Planet Money

Planet Money is an American podcast and blog produced by NPR. The podcast launched on September 6, 2008 to cover the global financial crisis of 2008–2009 in the wake of the Federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It was created after the success of "The Giant Pool of Money", an episode of...

 that culminated in the Peabody- and Polk- award winning episode "The Giant Pool of Money

The Giant Pool of Money

"The Giant Pool of Money" is an episode of the radio show This American Life which originally aired on May 9, 2008. The episode described to a general audience the causes and factors which led to the subprime mortgage crisis...

."

No Income No Job no Assets

A NINJA Loan is a type of subprime loan

Subprime lending

In finance, subprime lending means making loans to people who may have difficulty maintaining the repayment schedule...

. It was described as a No Income, No Job, (and) no Assets loan because the only thing an applicant had to show was his/her credit rating. The phrase was coined by Charles R. Morris in his book The Trillion Dollar Meltdown, which went to press March 3, 2008 with the manuscript being written in November 2007. They were especially prominent during the United States housing bubble

United States housing bubble

The United States housing bubble is an economic bubble affecting many parts of the United States housing market in over half of American states. Housing prices peaked in early 2006, started to decline in 2006 and 2007, and may not yet have hit bottom as of 2011. On December 30, 2008 the...

 of the 2000s but have gained wider notoriety due to the subprime mortgage crisis

Subprime mortgage crisis

The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis was one of the first indicators of the late-2000s financial crisis, characterized by a rise in subprime mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures, and the resulting decline of securities backed by said mortgages....

 in July/August 2007 as a prime example of poor lending practices. The term grew in usage during the 2008 financial crisis as the sub prime mortgage crisis was blamed on such loans. It works on two levels - as an acronym; and allusion to the fact that ninja loans are often defaulted on, with the borrower disappearing like a ninja

Ninja

A or was a covert agent or mercenary of feudal Japan specializing in unorthodox arts of war. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, as well as open combat in certain situations...

.

The term was also popularized in the 2010 US film Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps by the character Gordon Gekko played by Michael Douglas.

External links

• HCL Finance's ninja loan application form
• 'No Money Down' Falls Flat - Washington Post