Ms Derville Rowland:

I will just focus on some of the issues the Deputy raised with customers who are challenged in paying their mortgages, particularly where those loans may have been sold once or more than once. It is true the Central Bank's framework to support consumers who are facing arrears and distress is one of a number of elements in the national framework to support customers. Some of the decisions about write-down go outside of the Central Bank's framework, but we continue to focus on pressing firms to offer workable solutions for their customers. That has been and remains a key focus for us to make sure solutions are delivered. Where we see families with a change in circumstances, where either they have an income fall or where illness or other events arise, firms are expected to talk to their customers to see what can be done to support them. That might mean putting a different type of arrangement in place, one that is more sustainable. Of course, they have a duty to do that, and we expect that they do that.

In terms of communication, this is a really sensitive issue for people, and we have very clear expectations around how they communicate with their customers. They are expected to take a sympathetic approach with their customers. It is not meant to be or allowed to be intimidatory. There are rules around the kind of frequency and approach in terms of letters, etc. Once again, Deputy, I am not foolish enough to think that all systems work perfectly; they do not. However, we act on all information that we receive. We have a team of supervisors. It is their full-time job to look at all the various elements of arrears right across all of the bank, and our consumer protection team gets in touch with the firms. We will always act on any information the Deputy has. If he has particular examples, we welcome them. The team will always act. We have intensive regular firm-level engagement to look at how they are performing and supporting. We take complaints data from their own information. People write to us and tell us. We always act on that. Then, of course, we also engage with all of the lenders right across the system in group situations because there are some problems that need them to work together to solve. We will take it from a number of points of view, so we welcome any feedback.