subprime

[ suhb-prahym ]

adjective

1. being of less than top quality:

   a subprime grade of steel.

2. being below a prime rate:

   banks engaging in subprime lending.

subprime

/ ˈsʌbˌpraɪm /

adjective

1. (of a loan) made to a borrower with a poor credit rating, usually at a high rate of interest

noun

1. a loan made to a borrower with a poor credit rating

Word History and Origins

Origin of subprime¹

sub- + prime

Example Sentences

For households with subprime credit scores, credit options may be limited to high-cost options such as payday loans.

From Washington Post

Amid the subprime loan crisis, foreclosed-upon moms bore lower-weight babies.

From Washington Post

They chose to put some of that risk into the predatory subprime lending market which steered borrowers—disproportionately people of color—to buy or refinance their loans, often at higher rates than they qualified for.

From Time

So, in the subprime-mortgage crisis, we believed that mortgages were always going to just pay out regularly forever, when it actually turned out that the package of mortgages were actually a terrible asset.

From Freakonomics

He led a turnaround at the bank after a near crippling 2008 acquisition of troubled subprime lender Countrywide Financial, attracting Warren Buffett as a major investor along the way.

From Time

Eventually, Cuomo entered the Clinton administration, and as HUD secretary sowed the seeds of the subprime mortgage catastrophe.

From The Daily Beast

“These are not subprime mortgages,” he said of his portfolio that stretched from shipyards to oil rigs.

From The Daily Beast

Hedge funds it owned, which had employed vast leverage to bet on subprime bonds, loudly blew up in the summer of 2007.

From The Daily Beast

“Right after the subprime mortgage crisis, it was all really up in the air,” he says.

From The Daily Beast

Imagine, for instance: We had a governor of New York who was looking into the subprime mortgages, in D.C. testifying on that.

From The Daily Beast