Mr. Jim Ryan:

It is important to point out that we were the first to introduce tracker porting back in March 2011. Over and above all other banks we saw the requirement. There was a stalemate in the market because people had a very affordable tracker and consequently felt they could not trade up and move home. Many such people were in apartments with children and needed to move to a three or four-bedroom home. That situation has now moved on so that those in negative equity can also trade up whether or not they are on a tracker. That facilitates people to move on up to a level of an LTV of about 200%.

The product has its own key features and I can go into as much detail as the committee wishes. It is early days in terms of the enhancement of negative equity. The number of applications is still light but it is gaining traction.