Mr. Stephen Bell:

It is not available in the North. It is not really necessary to address the problem in the North based on our experience. Where we believe a person has the capacity to pay for a restructured home loan but chooses not to and works to sell the property, we would look at the residual debt on a case-by-case basis. We recognise that in some instances we may achieve a better outcome through the co-operation of the customer than if we had to go through a lengthy court process. We would typically not look to go beyond seven to ten years in any kind of arrangement because that would be consistent with the personal insolvency Act. We do not want to put people in a position whereby in co-operating with the bank, they put themselves in a worse position than if they had gone through a personal insolvency process. We would typically base our expectations on affordability and their individual circumstances.