This is not in fact much of a lowering of credit standards:
A financial company in Latvia is offering residents loans secured by nothing but their immortal soul.
Riga-based firm, named Kontora, does not require credit history record or proof of employment. It grants loans of 50 to 500 Latvian lats ($100 to $1,000) to any adult after he or she signs the a very short agreement.
According to the agreement, the only security required of the borrower is their immortal soul, which they are asked to confirm as their previously unmortgaged property.
The loan is subject to one percent per day in interest until full repayment.
The period of full repayment is 90 days, and in case the borrower fails to return the money, the creditor gets full possession of his soul.
The full story is here. I thank cf for the pointer.
This isn’t new — I bought a doughnut this way 15 years ago.
do they have to run a title check first to make sure you have legal possession of your soul?
I sold mine to Milhouse for 5 bucks.
They’re getting more security than the credit card companies offering credit to liberal-arts college students were getting.
Do you have to sign in blood?
What would Faustus do?
Looks like The Onion for Russians. I’m not familiar enough with Russian culture or politics to get most of the articles but I think it’s awesome that they’re filling the demand for that niche… one of those “markets in everything” eh?
Here’s another great Onion-worthy headline from this same source:
Russian artist bites US air-hostess after getting drunk on liquid soap
http://mosnews.com/world/2009/05/04/1447/
Except that one turns out to be in other news sources as well:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/5264000/hBritish-based-Russian-artist-Galina-Rusanova-arrested-drunk-on-flight.html
Here’s an AP story.
http://www.nebraska.tv/Global/story.asp?S=10288826
An interesting innovation. I wonder, however, how
well the market for the forfeited collateral works.
Excellent article.
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