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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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What are the European banks most interested in when they decide whether to grant a mortgage loan? Are they looking at the down-payment share or the amount of savings? Definitely, but this isn't the most important. Are they looking at the age of applicants? Yes, but this too isn't the main issue when they decide to grant a loan. Are they looking at the applicant's professional past? Yes, but not quite that way you may suppose. It's an interesting and curious story and I want to share it with you.

Some European newspapers asked major banks in different countries on the continent about the criteria for deciding who will be eligible to receive a loan. They did it by summarizing different kinds of applicants depending on their age, professions, savings, down-payment, etc.

The couples with relatively low savings but with good incomes and professional prospects scored higher in the banker's eyes than families with shaky incomes but more savings. The applicants with good incomes who didn't change employers were scored lower than those with lower incomes who did change employers at least once during the past years without changing the professional profile.

As for the relationship between the income and savings things seem clear - the banks are inclined to bet on the better professional career even with lower savings and down-payment than on the larger down-payment. But how to explain the difference in professional history? Why do loan officers look with favor on those who have changed their place of work?

The home mortgage isn't something that lasts a only couple of years or so. For banks it is crystal clear that the applicants will be forced for better or worse at least several times during the mortgage period to change their employer. Some say that on average workers in Western countries will have to look for a new job at least 5-6 times in their professional life. So who will be better prepared for these changes? Persons who did change their employers in the past!

But there is one big BUT that goes with this kind of reasoning. The ideal candidates for a loan in the eyes of European banks have to have changed their employer, not their professional profile. Thus, on one hand, the change seems more like promotion than sudden change. On the other hand, such change is a proof that even in difficult situations (like changing a job) the applicant won't give up and will continue to rise professionally and financially, which is by far the most important thing in the eyes of every lending institution.

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