Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 31 October 2012
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform
Operations and Functioning of IBRC: Discussion
12:40 pm
Mr. Mike Aynsley:
The answer to the second question probably is shortest. Yes, we are required to maintain a minimum capital level of 8%. We are capitalised for some degree of stress, given the state of the markets and given our mandate to sell down the portfolio. Our strategy is to stay within that regulatory capital threshold as we wind down. On the question as to whether we can close this earlier, yes we can. The way we look at it, this is a very black and white situation. Yes, we can but there is a capital consequence. We are into what we refer to as the "hard yards" part of the portfolio, that is, individual line-by-line work-out. That is in the absence of markets opening up and offering us an opportunity such as we saw in the United States. That was a strategy we began in October 2010 and which was concluded in October 2011. An enormous amount of work was completed to get the book in shape in order that we knew exactly what we had and we could take individual loans or parts of that portfolio to market. As the market opened up and the commercial mortgage-backed securities, CMBS, markets reopened, we had the opportunity to market the entire portfolio and of course all of it went, bar roughly €1 billion, which now has been worked down to approximately €400 million. If markets offer opportunity, our strategy is, in the meantime, to continue through this process of preparation and maintenance of data tapes, etc., in order that as markets operate and open up, we can put portfolios or more individual loans into the marketplace and close it earlier.
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