Mr. Jeremy Masding:

I have a capital base which the Irish taxpayer gave to us. My primary duty is to minimise the use of that capital and to get a return back. My decisions have to consider how much capital we would burn in a straight loan sale, how much we would burn if I retained and provided the loans and then decrecognised them, and how much capital we would burn if we did a securitisation. That is one of the key decision rules we apply. In this particular case we have not burnt any capital. We have actually got a small capital release, which is a great outcome for the Irish taxpayer. Our judgment was that we would have burnt taxpayers' capital in the other two alternatives and that capital is not mine to burn. From my perspective, it is a win for the taxpayer and an outcome for the customers that enables them to keep their treatments and gives them a servicer with experience in Ireland. It is the least worst alternative to repossessing those homes.