Vocabulary:

agency There's an agency which deals with second mortgages.

allow We'll allow you a first mortgage of 50% of the value of the property.

amortization The amortization on the first mortgage comes to 600 pounds sterling.

annual cost The annual cost of such an operation is enormous.

area The total area of the property is 2,200 square metres.

assured I've been assured that my contract will be renewed.

cautious The Central Mortgage Agency are always very cau­tious, so let's say the value of the property is only 50,000 pounds sterling.

contract I've got a three-year contract at the WHO.

estimate I think eight years is a reasonable estimate of the length of time I'll be living here.

estimated I'm sure your architect will agree with the estimated value of the

value house.

expenses I earn about 10,000 pounds sterling a year, plus ex­penses.

form If you fill in this form, we can send it to the CMA.

in a position To what extent are you in a position to help me?

inflation Buying a flat insures you against inflation.

insure Buying a house insures you against inflation.

mortgage We can let you have a first mortgage of 30,000 pounds sterling.

operation Such an operation would mean an enormous annual expense.

outright I haven't got enough money to buy the house outright. property What's the value of the property you want to buy? reasonable Our architect thinks the price you were given for the house is reasonable;

relations The bank's relations with the company you work for are good.

renewed How often do you think your contract will be renewed? represent What annual cost would such an operation represent?

second Have you had a second opinion concerning the value of the

opinion property?

source Have you got any other source of income besides your salary?

total The total area of the property I want is 2,200 square metres.

to what I'd like to know to what extent you're in a position extent to help.

value (v) I've had the property valued, and it's worth 66,000 pounds sterling.

Exercise 2: Paraphrase the following:

1. The reason I'm here, is to find out to what extent you are in a position to help me. 2. … … and my problem is to find the rest.

3. … … we can probably help you, in view of our relations with that organization. 4. I presume you're interested in my income, however.

5. Luckily my wife is very energetic

6. We'll allow you a first mortgage of 50% of the value of the property.

7. That would come to about £12,000.

8. … … they're always very cautious

9. Do you do everything necessary to obtain the second mortgage?

10. My wife has some investments, and I think we'll have to look into that.

11. Do I run a risk of a loss when I move on?

Exercise 3: Complete each space with the appropriate word or words.

Buying a house is one way of _________ against _________. Nor­mally, if you find a house that looks suitable, you have it _________. It's a wise idea, particularly if a very large __________ is _________, to have a second ________, just to make sure that the _________ given is _________.

Very few people, however, have enough _________ to buy ________ outright. They usually ______ a bank to see about getting a _______. The bank, of course, has to be very careful. They'll need a ______ of the house, and they'll have to ask their own _________ to take a look at it, to _________ the ________ value.

If the bank is ___________, they can let you have 50% of the __________ of the __________ as a first ________. If this doesn't __________ the entire _________, they can __________ you 60% of the _________ of any ______ or ___________ which you may have.

If you still haven't got enough, or if you haven't got any ______ which the bank can use as _________ for a second _______, then you can go to a specialized organization. They can give you a second ________, which will be the _______ between the first one and 80% of the _______ value of the ________.

With the __________ and _________ on both _______, and possibly the ________ on a __________ against __________, the annual ________ which such an _________ represents can be very high.

Exercise 4: Translate into Russian:

1. Analysts have been expecting higher earnings per share.

2. Oil brought the country $ ... in revenues last year, or nine tenths of its export income.

3. The firms are struggling to generate sufficient revenues to justify expensive new infrastructure.

4. Russian oil exports in ... were worth $ ..., or 14 per cent of total export revenues. Much of that income could be wiped out.

5. Now all Member States of the European Commission have made the laundering of drug proceeds a criminal offence.

1. The mortgage bank is forecast to show a 9 per cent rise in pretax profit.

2. Investment in business development and loss of income from capital returns will hold back overall profitability.

3. Investors abandoned computer-related companies because of their disappointing earnings.

4. If the company does not earn a reasonable return, the share price will fall and thus make it difficult to attract additional capital.

10. Investment funds promise to be the biggest source of potential revenues.

11. In Austria gains from direct investments are often not declared at all.

12. Higher-than-expected operating profit coupled with the appointment of a new chief executive pushed shares of the Swedish banking group higher.

13. The measures aimed at raising government revenue wouldn't work well.

Text 2: MORTGAES

Mortgages are loans for buying homes. The mortgagee (the company providing the mortgage) has to provide a large sum of money to enable the mortgagor (the borrower) to buy a house or flat, and spread the repayment of capital and interest over a long period, say 20 years. From the lender's point of view, this means lending long and borrowing short. This tends to go against the tradition of bankers. So specialist companies called building societies were set up solely to handle the home loans business.

In a mortgage agreement the house buyer agrees to make monthly repayments, insure the house and take out life insur­ance. The building society keeps the title deeds of the property as additional security. In this way, the building society has complete security even if the house burns down or the mortgagor dies. Where the building society cannot obtain enough money from de­positors it can borrow on the money markets. This means that the amount of money paid by house buyers each month varies from time to time according to variations in the interest rate.

It is also possible to obtain fixed interest mortgages. The ad­vantage of this is that home buyers know exactly how much money they have to find each month throughout the term of the mortgage. This enables them to plan their financial affairs more exactly. The disadvantage is that the loan may be taken out at a time of high interest rates which the borrower has to continue paying although market rates fall. So the borrower is paying more than the current cost of borrowing. If market rates go up then the opposite is true and the fixed rate mortgage is an advantage. Then the borrower is paying less than the current cost of borrowing.

During the 1980s the financial services industry was deregulated, which meant that many government controls were removed. Building societies started to do banking business and offer interest-paying current accounts to their savers. To meet the competition banks started to provide mortgages and many other services traditionally provided only by other specialized institutions.