Mr. Colm Kincaid:

There are differences in the pricing practices. There are differences in the pricing practices even within the non-bank lenders. Not all non-bank lenders have passed on the interest rate increases for example. Not all non-bank lenders that have raised rates have raised them for all their borrowers. Not all of the more than 100,000 borrowers of which the Deputy speaks are in the scenario where they are dealing with a lender that does not have a full suite of products. Some of the non-banks are themselves lenders and do have a full suite of products, including fixed rates.

At the moment, we are at a point where we need to see the situation evolve. We need to see the extent to which borrowers switch. We have seen with some lenders some early indications through their redemption activity that may be indicative of borrowers switching. We also need to see the extent to which people who seek to migrate from one lender to another are successful in doing so. There is no distinction or restriction in our regime between the treatment of a borrower who looks to move between a non-bank lender to a bank. It is the same set of rules and the same provisions. That is why in the Governor's opening remarks we made the point that one of the areas of focus for us is to make sure that across the system a timely assessment of applications on prudent credit criteria is consistently applied so that a borrower with a non-bank who approaches a bank seeking to refinance gets the same treatment and the same assessment as anybody else.