Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 5 November 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform

Overview of Banking Sector: Bank of Ireland

2:15 pm

Mr. Richie Boucher:

Yes, certainly. There is a significant amount of information on mortgage arrears on slides 28 to 43, confirming that our mortgage arrears have come down by 24% from our peak. Nine out of ten of our private dwelling home, PDH, accounts and eight out of ten of our buy-to-let mortgages are up to date. For nine out of ten private homes and eight out of ten buy-to-let cases where the customer has identified, through an SFS, a problem in paying, we can provide a sustainable solution. The solutions are set out on the slides, and in excess of 86% of those solutions and restructures are being adhered to.

There was a particular question about SME loans and defaults on the SME loans, in particular, the Irish SME loan book. The left-hand side of slide 43 shows that the defaulted loans on the Irish SME book or business banking book continued to reduce. It shows that our provision coverage had increased and it confirms that in nine out of ten of the challenged customers, we have restructures or resolution strategies in place and in 90% of those cases they have been adhered to.

We have given significant information in slides 46 to 59, which is a reference point for the business and in particular focuses on our Irish businesses, which I will quickly go through. In terms of the time factor and reflecting the Chairman's request, I will wrap up by saying that now and for the future the Bank is focused on supporting and benefiting from the Irish economic recovery, developing our relations with our existing and new customers, continuing to provide and develop solutions for customers in financial difficulty, effectively managing the developing regulatory environment, generating capital, managing risk, developing qualified, trained, committed and motivated employees to work as a team to deliver our objectives as a business, increasing our profitability, and through all the above having a sustainable business. Sustainability is important in terms of the way we look at our businesses, providing sustainable propositions to our customers and sustainable returns to our shareholders.

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