Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 8 April 2014
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform
Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank
2:20 pm
Mr. Stephen Bell:
The way we tend to approach these things is that as we develop formal structures, we present them to the Central Bank and seek its agreement. We have advised the Central Bank in correspondence that we are developing solutions which will involve a structure that goes beyond retirement age. We have not as yet had any push-back or resistance to that, but we are not at the stage of formally proposing that structure for the Central Bank's confirmation. After we last appeared before the committee, we went through the same process with our economic concession product. It took us six to eight weeks after the committee's last hearing before we finally got confirmation from the Central Bank. It is not a short process but I am pleased to note that, as yet, no resistance has been expressed to the idea of pushing part of the resolution beyond retirement.