THE term "Ninja" conjures up Hollywood action images of films like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
But lately the word has taken on a new meaning, one which has sliced through the certainties of the banking world - and could be causing concern among homeowners worried about the threat to mortgage rates.
Until recently, even those who inhabit t
he world of banking had not necessarily heard of the term "Ninja loan". Ninja, in this case, is an acronym for "No Income, No Job or Assets".
The current financial flux has been caused by these loans, made in America, to aspiring homeowners with no employment and no assets to their name.
You may not be surprised to hear it, but some specialist "Ninja" businesses are finding their borrowers can't make repayments. This was always a risky area of business, known formally as sub-prime lending. The risk in many cases has not paid off.
Some sub-prime loans specialists are going belly up, others are under threat. The global banking system is trying to figure out how bad the problem, which is not confined to American shores, is.
The international nature of financial markets means ownership of loans is traded across borders at the click of a mouse.
Sub-prime loans typically have been bundled together with other mortgages and then sold on to investors worldwide. These packages have been repeatedly bundled into different financial products and are spread around a range of global investors.
With some of the bigger US lenders now failing due to sub-prime loans gone bad, institutions everywhere are looking to see whether they have bought products including sub-prime loans.
The general uncertainty has spread to the stock market as analysts figure out whether banks can still afford to finance takeovers.
There is talk of a "credit crunch" - banks slowing decisions to lend or hiking the rates because of the uncertainty caused.
Central banks - intervening to minimise the impact on real companies and real people - have reacted by pumping billions into markets to plug the gaps while ordinary banks do their sums.
The British Bankers' Association is helping by trying to ensure there is no unnecessary panic.
The BBA has also found itself in the news because of the British Bankers' Association London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR). This is the interest rate at which large banks will lend each other money for short periods of time.
It's gone up a bit recently, peaking at 0.75 per cent above the Bank of England's 5.75 per cent base rate on Monday. This reflects banks' worries about the fallout from the sub-prime failures.
What may not be clear is whether any of this will actually impact on people who save or borrow . The good news is that this will have little short-term effect.
Almost all mortgage companies in the UK calculate the rate of interest by reference to the UK base rate - not the BBA's "LIBOR" rate or any of the other interest rates mentioned in the news.
Your mortgage and ability to pay have not changed and it is very unlikely the UK will face an American-style problem. Mortgages here are sold in a different way.
Most UK loans stay with the provider. There is no passing or repackaging, unlike in the US.
This means lenders are much more certain about who all the loans have been made to, and how likely they are to be repaid. This should play a part in limiting the overall impact from a very unwelcome breed of "Ninja".
Angela Knight is chief executive of the British Bankers' Association
