Mr. Richie Boucher:

Our culture and ethos is to work with our customers. Moving towards a repossession is, from our perspective, a fail. We need the customer to engage. Where the customer is engaged, we can help, as I mentioned, in 80% of cases. If the customer does not engage, for whatever unknown reason, the customer is narrowing down the options. A repossession is a cost to the bank which we always seek to avoid, but we lend against collateral and we must, if necessary in extreme cases, be able to realise our collateral.

We monitor the performance of our front-line staff on an ongoing basis through the recording of their conversations. It is a very important part of the process that we are professional and empathetic with the customer. We get advice from independent third parties, for example UK Asset Resolution, UKAR, the UK Government-owned agency that deals with the mortgage banks it took over, such as Bradford & Bingley. They examine the standards we operate. The Central Bank sends in third parties or its own staff to sit beside our colleagues who are dealing with very difficult situations, and they monitor their performances. We have checks and balances to ensure that happens.