Description:
We use UK transaction-level data to study whether national mortgage moratoria can act as a mechanism for smoothing mortgagors’ consumption following negative aggregate shocks. We find that, when faced with aggregate stress, both borrowers with pre-existing financial vulnerabilities and those with stronger balance sheets, including buy-to-let investors, have an incentive to draw on mortgage moratoria if the policy is freely available and has no impact on future credit access. Furthermore, we find that offering mortgage moratoria in stress, helps liquidity-constrained borrowers to maintain a higher annual consumption growth compared to those non-eligible for the policy. This is an important finding, as more vulnerable mortgagors are more likely to pull away from consumption in stress. However, for mortgagors who are more financially-stable, the policy leads to a rise in saving rates