Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 4 October 2018
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Banking Sector: Quarterly Engagement with the Central Bank
9:30 am
Mr. Ed Sibley:
I understand that. I have had many conversations with the chairs, chief executive officers, CEOs, other board members and other members of the banks about this issue and I am very clear about it. There is not a target. That is the first point.
We expect the loans to be addressed through various mechanisms, including restructuring, which was the second point on which the Deputy touched. We have been very clear throughout on what we have described as sustainable. We put out sustainability guidelines in 2013 when we issued targets in terms of mortgage arrears reduction. That drove change in terms of the banks' approach to dealing with mortgage arrears at that point, which had been very much short-term forbearance rather than dealing with the underlining issues. That has resulted in a very high number of restructures being used to address the issue. There is a specific point around split mortgages, which I think was the germination of the discussion the Senator had in Frankfurt.
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