Darling to boost mortgage securities

The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, is to unveil plans to grade mortgages according to their level of risk in next week's Budget. Darling hopes that by giving a 'gold standard' kitemark to mortgage-backed securities comprising loans that meet higher standards of creditworthiness, he will give a boost to the market for mortgage securitisations, which has in effect been shut since the credit crunch hit last summer.