Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 3 September 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform

Overview of Financial Sector: Discussion with AIB

8:10 pm

Mr. Bernard Byrne:

On the overall objective, and we stated this on the previous occasion, AIB grew its position in the market from approximately 25% 18 months ago, by fixing many things in its own process, to get up towards approximately 40% about which we are talking now. Our objective is to grow our share of our book associated with mortgages as we go forward and for reasons we have talked about earlier, the book will continue to delever - pay down - unless we lend more on the mortgage. The book was somewhere between €20 billion and €40 billion per annum at its peak. Currently, if it is down €2.5 billion or €3 billion, all that happens is that the balance sheet keeps shrinking. That is not in anyone's interest and therefore we want to lend more to the mortgage market, but we want to do it responsibly, and that is based on affordability. The key criterion now is based on affordability. It is not a multiple of salary. It is the income a person has available to service his or her mortgage and that mortgage payment can then afford.

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