Ms Gráinne McEvoy:

There are two points. The Chairman asked what better elements of transparency could be put in place. The committee is aware that we have been asked by the Minister for Finance to undertake a review of the code of conduct on mortgage arrears, CCMA, as regards its effectiveness and particularly as that relates to the sale of loans. The work is under way and we must respond to the Minister over the next couple of months. Any evidence that could be provided, either by the committee or others, to feed into that process of changing or enhancing the CCMA with respect to transparency for consumers would be very welcome. We actively encourage evidence of cases that could feed into the process.

Our engagement is only with credit servicing firms directly. We have had a number of bilateral engagements with those firms this year.

It should be borne in mind that the regulatory regime and framework for these firms was only put in place in late 2015. Once that legislation was put in place, our focus was on setting up and ensuring we had a robust authorisation framework to allow us to authorise these firms. We had to put in place authorisation procedures and guidelines for firms seeking authorisation and approval. We have met a number of firms this year and we met a number in the past with a particular focus on their compliance with the consumer protection code. However, I do not have the specific number of engagements with me.