The Monetary Authority will enforce an 80% limit on mortgage loans -- the ceiling in Hong Kong is 70% of the property's assessed value.

CNN: How the government is cracking down on speculators

The value of loans being written does not set a ceiling on the amount of losses they can generate.

ECONOMIST: Paradise lost

And it is to ask the question whether the global financial system, and the economies of developed countries like Britain, would be in such dire straights if banks had been subject to a simple leverage ceiling, limiting how much banks could lend in total, irrespective of the nature of their loans, as a multiple of their capital.

BBC: If banks are treated as naughty kids...