Results 19,801-19,820 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (27 May 2015)

Michael Noonan: Yes, normal contract law applies. Our objective is to extend the protection of the code of conduct on mortgage arrears, which the Central Bank has applied to the generality of mortgages, to the new situation that arises when mortgage books are sold to unregulated entities.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (27 May 2015)

Michael Noonan: That is correct, subject to the qualifications I outlined. If the owner decides to be his own credit service provider, he is caught then. He is in a different space.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (27 May 2015)

Michael Noonan: My parliamentary colleagues in all parties argued me out of this when we were processing the Bill. This is where we started. There is a better solution now.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (27 May 2015)

Michael Noonan: The Deputy is going over the same ground again. I cannot really deal with specific cases.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (27 May 2015)

Michael Noonan: The Deputy made many points before coming to that question. I will deal with that as well. I cannot deal with the specific cases that the Deputy has drawn to my attention because I just do not know the facts. I cannot reply to them. The Central Bank has set out, in protocols and regulations, a particular code of conduct for dealing with mortgage arrears. Of the 750,000 mortgages in the...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (27 May 2015)

Michael Noonan: The person can ask the mortgage provider whom the loan book has been sold to. I do not see where the difficulty arises.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (27 May 2015)

Michael Noonan: The purpose of the legislation is to ensure that everybody who has mortgage arrears and is being communicated with, through an agent or otherwise, by the owners of that mortgage has the same protection as all of the people who, up to now, have been regulated by the Central Bank and the terms of the code of conduct for mortgage arrears. That is the purpose of it. The purpose is not to give a...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (27 May 2015)

Michael Noonan: Borrowers need to know who they are dealing with, namely, the credit servicing firm and they will know that because that is who will send them letters or other forms of communication. There are later amendments on naming owners and we can talk about that issue when we get to those amendments.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (27 May 2015)

Michael Noonan: I move amendment No. 3:In page 3, line 27, to delete "person" and substitute "creditor". Amendments Nos. 5, 8 and 9 are also in my name. I do not propose to accept amendment No. 7. Amendment No. 3 and the first part of amendment No. 5 are technical in nature and deal with the definition of the term "creditor". The amendments are intended to ensure the Bill covers only credit as issued by...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (27 May 2015)

Michael Noonan: Let us consider first principles. The purpose of the Bill is to ensure the protection a home owner had before his or her mortgage was sold is restored fully, no more or no less. If someone has lost protection through a sale transaction from a regulated to an unregulated entity, this legislation will restore the status quo. There is no weakening of the regulatory provision. As we have...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (27 May 2015)

Michael Noonan: The purpose of the Bill is as stated. It is not as I or the Deputy sees it.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (27 May 2015)

Michael Noonan: It is as it is.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (27 May 2015)

Michael Noonan: There is a consumer code on mortgage arrears, CCMA, which is set down by the Central Bank. The practices the Deputy describes and that are known to him personally would be in breach of that code. In the Bill we are extending its protection to the unregulated entities. Once we have passed the legislation and the President has signed it, the CCMA's protection will extend to the persons whom...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (27 May 2015)

Michael Noonan: I agree with many of the concerns expressed by Deputy Boyd Barrett. The primary concern is that there was a code of conduct to deal with persons in mortgage arrears which the Central Bank applied to the lending agencies but because of the sale of loan books sometimes an agency which was regulated by the Central Bank and subject to the code of conduct on mortgage arrears applied by the...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (27 May 2015)

Michael Noonan: I move amendment No. 4:In page 4, to delete lines 24 to 38 and substitute the following: “ ‘credit servicing firm’ means— (a) a person (other than the National Asset Management Agency or a NAMA group entity (within the meaning of the National Asset Management Agency Act 2009)) who— (i) undertakes credit servicing other than on behalf of a regulated...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (27 May 2015)

Michael Noonan: I move amendment No. 5:In page 4, between lines 38 and 39, to insert the following: “ ‘creditor’ means a person who grants credit under a credit agreement in the course of the person’s trade, business or profession, and includes a group of such persons; ‘prescribed contravention’ has the same meaning as in the Act of 1942;”.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (27 May 2015)

Michael Noonan: I move amendment No. 6:In page 5, line 4, after “2003” to insert the following: “to which credit has been provided by a financial service provider authorised, by the Bank or an authority that performs functions in an EEA country that are comparable to the functions performed by the Bank, to provide credit in the State”.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (27 May 2015)

Michael Noonan: I move amendment No. 8:In page 5, line 7, to delete “subsection” and substitute “subsections”.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (27 May 2015)

Michael Noonan: I move amendment No. 9:In page 5, lines 23 and 24, to delete all words from and including “a” in line 23 down to and including line 24 and substitute “a prescribed contravention.”.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (27 May 2015)

Michael Noonan: I move amendment No. 10:In page 5, between lines 24 and 25, to insert the following:“(3) For the purposes of this Part, a regulated financial service provider authorised, whether before or after the coming into operation of the Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Act 2015, by the Bank or an authority that performs functions in an EEA country that are comparable...