In many countries banks provide loans to students to help pay for college fees. In some cases these loans are subsidized by the state.
In the most developed countries, and in particular in the US, securitization has had a marked impact on the development of the mortgage lending business. Securitization involves selling the rights to the cashflows generated from a pool of assets, of which mortgages make up the largest class. In such markets commercial banks may find it more profitable to originate mortgage loans and then to sell those loans than to hold and fund them.
Typically a loan with a term of 15–30 years made for the purchase of a specific property. The borrower gives the bank a “lien” on the property. This is a legal term that entitles the bank to the title of the property in the event of the borrower failing to make payments as scheduled. Mortgages may be fixed rate, floating rate or some combination of the two forms, for example fixed for the first three years and then reverting to a floating rate based on some prespecified benchmark.