Ms Niamh Murphy:

We can only go by what we have seen so far in the market with some of the banks that have exited or moved on their loan books. According to public documentation available, they have sold these portfolios at a very deep discount. Accordingly, they have already bought a mix of performing and non-performing loans, be they mortgages or SME loans. Based on international practice, we would expect some of these firms or funds to then sell on those loans. What they are looking to do is to maintain the loans for a period and then, once conditions improve, sell them on. The Central Bank has used the term “stickiness” to describe the resolutions that have been put in place. The committee has heard from some of our member banks about the level of stickiness of the resolutions that have been put in place. There may be anecdotal evidence, to which FLAC, the Free Legal Advice Centres, alluded that not every resolution will remain in place and there will be changes.