Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Masding and his colleagues and thank them for the presentation. I thank them also for the progress they have made in terms of the bank's financial stability, which is important to the State. I welcome in that regard the progress Permanent TSB has made with the Commission on its capital reserves. That has been reflected in external credit agencies - I think it was Moody's - upgrading the bank's credit rating. Mr. Masding might elaborate on the following. The impact of improved credit ratings from the agencies surely manifests in terms of the bank's ability to go to the market and access funds. I appreciate that a complex matrix of issues is at stake here. Given that improved credit rating and, equally, given the fact that by its own admission the bank gets 15% of its funding from the ECB, which is five times what AIB receives, at 3%, should it not be in a position to pass on some reduction to its customers across the range of businesses, particularly in the context of the standard variable rate? Mr. Masding referred a moment ago to funding costs returning to a normalised situation, but we are at historically low rates for funding costs for any borrower, including the State and the banks on international markets. Notwithstanding the losses Permanent TSB is suffering and its progress in dealing with those, a simplistic analysis suggests that there are a number of significant issues moving in the bank's favour. If the bank had a different balance of objectives, acknowledging that it must be profitable and meet its capital reserves, it should be in a position to deliver something back to its customers, particularly its standard variable rate customers, given all the factors that are moving in the right direction.