Professor Philip Lane:

The code of conduct on mortgage arrears is quite extensive. It has been quite effective in influencing how creditors manage these cases. Across Europe, through the ECB task force on non-performing loans, the spirit of that code will be rolled out as widely as possible. That approach is appropriate as to how mortgages in arrears will be handled.

The wider question on the underlying strategies of these funds is outside the scope of the credit servicing legislation. These funds have a different business model to those of the domestic banks. The way they handle cases may be quite different. That is at the level of strategy which is not in the scope of our regulations.