Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 6 December 2018

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

Sale of Permanent TSB Mortgage Loans: Discussion

2:00 pm

Mr. Cormac Ryan:

I thank the Deputy for raising the important matter of this customer. It sounds like quite a distressing case. As with the Permanent TSB representatives I will get the details afterwards to ensure that when this customer comes across to the management of Pepper the customer is flagged as a vulnerable customer and follows the specific policies we have for the customers in those types of situations.

I wish to clarify exactly what our role is in the transaction. The sale of the Glenbeigh portfolio has effectively been a sale from Permanent TSB and a purchase by Glenbeigh Securities, which is the securitisation transaction. This means the ownership is now split. The beneficial ownership of the loans - who owns the economic interest - sits with Glenbeigh, and the legal title holder sits with Pepper. We have two roles. One as the legal title holder, which means we are the lender of record, and the second role is as the servicer to manage and administrate the loans day to day. As regards who bought the loans, we did not actually buy the loans. Glenbeigh Securities bought the loans and then passed the legal title to us. It has appointed us as the servicer on the portfolio.

On how the warehouse debt will be treated, the Deputy's summary is correct that the warehouse debt is part of the transaction. Glenbeigh Securities is taking on those loans in respect of the economic ownership. That €1.3 billion will move across and ultimately will be owned by the bondholders at the back. I would like to clarify that the prospectus refers to eligible debt forgiveness. I want to be very careful in what I say and calibrate my comments correctly; in very exceptional cases there will be a mechanism in certain cases such as vulnerable customers and in other cases of insolvencies when we do reviews. There is a mechanism in place for that, but it will depend on each of the individual circumstances. The main answer to Deputy Burton's question on what happens to the warehouse debt is that it moves across. As I said at the beginning, some 86% of the loans mature in plus ten years and more than 50% do not mature until 20 years. As the loans currently stand there is a bullet payment due at the end and this is the way the loans have been transferred across.

The Deputy's second question was about who would actually do the reviews and how would they be carried out. As I said in my opening statement, the arrangements, if there is no change, absolutely stay in place. No different from the Permanent TSB it is appropriate, and in many cases it is in the best interests of the customer, to have regular reviews. The current protocol within Permanent TSB is that these have been done up to tri-annually. This does not mean every three years, it means that sometimes it is every three years. We will look at the frequency of that but I can say there is absolutely no plan to conduct reviews at an inappropriate frequency. Some reviews will continue on a three year basis, some may move to two years and others may move to one year. I can give an additional assurance today that there is absolutely no plan to review any arrangement more than once a year, unless the borrower comes to us. How the reviews are carried out and how they are notified to the borrowers, are strictly governed and controlled by the code of conduct on mortgage arrears. The reviews must be at appropriate intervals and we must give a month's notice. We will absolutely abide by that in carrying out the reviews. I would also add that when we do the reviews, and as I said in my opening statement with regard to the code, we will carry those out constructively and sympathetically. If nothing has changed and if everything is the exact same way, the arrangement stays in place and we move on to schedule the next review.

The last question was on control. I will again explain the structure. Permmanent TSB has sold the loans to Glenbeigh Securities with regard to the economic interest. We are the legal title holder and the servicer. The way this legal transaction has been set up, as I said in my opening statement, we have been put in full control to manage and administer the portfolio on a day to day basis, and effectively Glenbeigh has delegated that legal authority to us.

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