Abstract of Doctoral Dissertations

WITH THE GROWTH of the ageing population, old age security hasbecome one of the prime concerns for the Indian government. The PFRDABill and other such measures provide a solid ground for this assumption.Even the establishment of IIMPS for micro pensions for the people of theunorganized sector is in the same direction.All these measures are good for people who are into their working life andthus can save for their retirement now. But one of the segments which havebeen left is the one who are in their retirement phase and who may not haveenough cash to sustain their life. Pension by Central and State Governmentsare not enough to sustain them. These people may not have enough income orsaving in cash but may have assets which may not be providing income. Thisproblem is converted into the business opportunity by the financial institutions.A new financial service, by name ‘Reverse Mortgage’, to answer this problem isintroduced. The National Housing Bank, the apex body on housing finance inIndia, came out with its guidelines on reverse mortgage in early 2007. Some ofthe Public Sector Banks and one private housing finance company have alreadycome up with their products and the market in India started growing. A simple definition of reverse mortgage can be “A reverse mortgage isa loan available to seniors and is used to release the home equity in theproperty as one lump sum or multiple payments. The homeowner’sobligation to repay the loan is deferred until the owner dies, the home issold, or the owner leaves (e.g., into aged care)”