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

2:30 pm

Mr. Jim Brown:

We do have a process in place to deal with customers who are in arrears. That process is working. In terms of those 90 days in arrears, 2,500 people previously in arrears are no longer in arrears. There are 5,000 people who were in arrears of some sort who are now also no longer in arrears. It is clear that where customers do engage with us we can put in place a solution to work through their issues.

There is an element of customers, approximately 4,000, who have not engaged with us at all despite our trying to contact them. Following failed repeated attempts to engage with them, we instigated the legal process. As I mentioned earlier, it is not our intent to repossess 4,000 houses. Our intent is to get people to engage with us in putting in place solutions.