Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 12 November 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform

Overview of Banking Sector: Permanent TSB

2:55 pm

Mr. Shane O'Sullivan:

No, we do not. We considered a number of options on foot of our previous meetings with the committee. We took on board a previous suggestion about extending our current treatments into retirement and after investigating it with our credit committees and in other forums, such as with customers, we believe there is merit in the suggestion and we have decided to progress that treatment. We also discussed with the committee the possibility of making commitments upfront to customers who work collaboratively with us to sell their properties in respect of what might happen to any shortfalls, and we decided to implement that as a proposition. We have not pursued debt for equity at this stage. Our sense is that it is a complicated proposition and there may not be as much appetite for it among our customer base as there would be for commitments upfront on shortfalls and lending into retirement.