Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to ask the witnesses about non-performing loans, NPLs, and the sale to vulture funds. We have been inundated with people phoning and emailing us to tell us that although they are not in arrears, the bank has turned its back on them and their family. Other mortgage accounts which had a small amount of arrears have also been sold. When we queried that with Permanent TSB, for example, the bank told us in broad terms that the definition of an NPL, while complex, is that if a person was in arrears at any point, even if he or she was making full payments, as was agreed in the original application with no arrears, that loan is defined as a non-performing loan.

The committee has teased this out with banks previously, and maybe I missed something, but I have never understood an NPL to be defined in that way. For example, if Professor Lane, anyone else or I missed a number of mortgage payments ten years ago and had arrears of €1,000 that were cleared nine years ago, that mortgage would still be deemed as non-performing. Is that the case?