Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 8 April 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform

Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank

3:10 pm

Mr. Jim Brown:

I would like to add to that. The key thing is that our focus has been on coming up with solutions that address arrears issues and keep people in their homes. As I said in my opening statement, there has been a decrease of 2,500 in the number of people who are in arrears of 90 days or more. Over the last 12 months, there has been a decrease of 5,000 in the number of customers who are in any sort of arrears. We have solutions that we have put in place and are working. The number of people in arrears is evidence of that. We have put in place a number of pre-emptive solutions to stop the situation from getting worse and prevent people from getting into arrears of 90 days or more. A number of customers have not engaged with us at all over an extended period of time. There are just two ways to resolve that - through the court process or by getting the customer to engage. If they do not engage, the court process is the only avenue open to us.