Mr. Jim Brown:

We found that we had a significant issue in terms of the right of increase in mortgage arrears and that as a consequence we needed to have a significantly high number of collectors in place who could reach out and call our customers. We found that because a crisis like this one had not existed in the Republic, it was very difficult if not impossible to get experienced collectors in the market. We looked at areas where we might be able to get collectors. As it happened there was a pool of available collectors in Edinburgh, generally people who had four or five years of experience and who know how to deal with customers in arrears. The management had generally five to ten years experience so we made a decision that we would set a system for early arrears in Edinburgh. This was primarily driven by getting people who had experience in handling mortgage arrears so that they knew how to handle our customers correctly.

Generally speaking mortgages that are 90 days or more in arrears are handled in the Republic. We have 50 people on the ground in our network who deal with the more significant mortgage arrears.