Institutions that are not actively involved in mortgage lending will have smaller loan portfolios and larger holdings of lower yielding investments.  Interest income will be lower thus making it more difficult to pay competitive rates on savings, maintain profitability, and grow. The auto loan market, once the mainstay of consumer lending, has been permanently disrupted by extreme competition resulting from dealer incentives, zero percent financing, and indirect lending where loans are won or lost by only a few basis points or on the basis of fees paid to the dealers.  The credit card market is similarly characterized by extraordinary competition and shrinking portfolios. The result is that mortgage-related lending is now the most viable source of loans. However, this brings its own set of issues, most notably managing the interest rate risk associated with fixed-rate mortgage lending and the inherent volatility of the business