Mr. Bernard Sheridan:

Any firm wishing to operate here as a moneylender has to apply to the Central Bank for authorisation to do so. As part of that process, there is a meeting between the firm and the Central Bank. During recent years a handful of firms from different jurisdictions have communicated with us in regard to setting up that business model here. Applying the policy that we have set, we have been able to refuse them entry to the market. While initially these firms only provide loans which are critical to people in terms of getting them out of a hole, they subsequently turn into firms providing easy access to credit.