Mr. David Went:

Well, Springboard was regarded when we entered into it as a relatively small diversification that could open up, potentially, another market to us, which was analogous to the market we were in but was slightly different. And it's fair to say that there was considerable discussion of that particular proposition at the board. There had been some concerns in the US over sub-prime mortgages. There was a concern that this was, you know, was a sub-prime mortgage business. That wasn't the way in which it was conceived by Irish Life and Permanent. It was conceived by Irish Life and Permanent as being a, sort of, a non-standard mortgage, not very far ... potentially quite close to a standard mortgage but certainly not sub-prime.