Mr. Ed Sibley:

The height of the number of people who were in distress and the number of accounts that were in difficulty was 2012 and 2013. Let us compare that with where we are today.

It is clear that significant effort has been made for mortgage holders and small and medium sized enterprises, SMEs, when one compares the number of people in distress and accounts in difficulty today to the position that pertained at the heights of 2012 and 2013. Some might not like the outcome of that or how that engagement has worked, but a huge amount of restructuring has been done. Approximately one owner-occupier mortgage account in six that is held within the banks has been restructured and approximately nine out of ten of those are meeting the terms of that restructure. Such loans started being restructured in 2012 and 2013, at which time many of them were interest only, part payment, or to which temporary forbearance applied. The dial changed on that because of the engagement of the Central Bank, this committee and other State agencies to ensure that the solutions being put in place to help borrowers stay in their homes were addressing the underlying issues. Measures such as a period of short-term forbearance to give the borrower time to get back on his or her feet, longer-term forbearance in restructuring the loan through split mortgages, extending the terms, arrears capitalisations and economic concessions have been put in place and there is much evidence of it happening.

We still have a circumstance whereby, unfortunately, too many borrowers are still in distress.