Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 22 March 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Proposed Sale of Non-Performing Loans to Private Investment Funds (Vulture Funds): Allied Irish Banks

9:30 am

Mr. Jim O'Keeffe:

It is there. We are saying that in those instances, because of the way lending was set up and because of cross-collateralisation, the loans could be in scope as part of potential sales.

It is similar to the commentary on principal dwelling houses. What we are saying is that we are trying to create space, while still achieving the targets that we have to create, in order that we can work with farmers, businesses and family homes. Therefore, it is critical for us to get the message across. We have put structures in place. The restructuring that we put in place with farmers was really bespoke in terms of how we went about it, how we assessed the affordability, how we assessed the farm and how we look at sustainability. It would be all too easy – as committee members know – to simply look at the asset. However, we also look at what is a sustainable farm based on the market rent etc. We have resolved a significant proportion of farms. It is critical for us to have an element that has the potential to be included in portfolio sales. Today, we can work with customers to restructure these.

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