Mr. Edmund Honohan:

As agents for the credit purchasers, they are entitled to administer the contract, which the credit purchasers have with the borrower. Therefore, as agents, they say that they have directions from their boss or whatever or they have been givencarte blanchein relation to interest rates, and they can decide to increase them in the hope they get away with it. It is only when we ask where they actually get this calculation that we begin to realise that they are not actually based on any kind of commercial reality in terms of the funding model of the credit purchaser.

Basically, what has happened is that the credit services have said this is great news; they can just say it is because the bank rates have gone up in Europe and everyone will say that they must be right and that because the bank rates have gone up in Europe then, surely, they are entitled to more interest.