Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is very brief and, again, the Central Bank is free to send correspondence to the committee. It is about the Permanent TSB mortgages that have been sold to Pepper. What is unclear for many of the customers is the regulatory status of Pepper and what the rights of the consumers are, given that their mortgages have been transferred to it. I refer in particular to groups of people who are paying the agreed settlement amount where they previously had a deal with Permanent TSB. The mortgage has now been sold. To return to the Stop the Harm principle, there are people, I am sure the Chairman will agree, who are terrified of what will happen next. In addition, apparently many other banks are proposing to sell the bulk of settlement loan customers to vulture funds and other funds and organisations. It would be helpful if Ms Rowland could highlight what powers the customers have, if any. At present, they are in a situation where they may have been paying the agreed settlement for a number of years. The period of the agreement might be coming to an end a number of years hence and people are genuinely terrified of these banks or organisations. They might not be banks in the regulated sense. They might be people who are looking after the accounts or funds that have bought the mortgages. There a responsibility on the Central Bank to make people's position clear.