Mr. Paul Joyce:

It is worth noting that in the UK, the entities who take over the administration of mortgages are regulated separately under a code for mortgage administrators. Over recent years in Ireland we have seen a number of unregulated entities operating in the collection and management of debt, and it has taken us a long time to impose a regulatory status on them. Much depends on the meat of the legislation and its provisions, but we would be wary for consumers where third parties are involved. We have come across a number of cases in which borrowers in arrears are not even sure who they are supposed to be paying because a debt collection company is involved, on the one hand, and the borrower continues to liaise with the lender, on the other. Telephone calls may be transferred to an office in Leeds, London or Dublin. In some cases, multiple debt collectors have been involved on the same account. There does not even appear to be an express provision that obliges a lender to declare immediately to a borrower when a loan has been sold or handed over to a debt management company. I would think more detail is needed in the Bill simply to declare that, if there is a legal relationship between the debt owner and servicing agency, the agency would in some way take responsibility for servicing the loan. It appears to us that regulatory rules for the agency managing or collecting the debt would be a good idea.