Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 29 April 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform

Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank

2:00 pm

Mr. Jim Brown:

First, it would be useful if we could get details of those in order that we could respond in a more thoughtful way. Therefore, the responses I will give may not be exact. On the first issue, as I mentioned, I do not think that moving the three year period to one year is the issue in terms of speeding the resolution. The key here is that there are two or three elements that make the process lengthy. The first is that there is a code of conduct on mortgage arrears process, which we need to go through with customers. That can be quite protracted. Getting into the court process and getting a case through the system, heard and finalised is also very lengthy. In my view the only way to shorten the process is to address both of those. At present the only tool we have available to us, due to lack of engagement, is the court process. Therefore, we have no choice but to go through that protracted process to get those 2,000 people to engage. In terms of financial expertise, we already advise customers of that.

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