Results 201-220 of 1,974 for speaker:Arthur Spring
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)
Arthur Spring: How are we going to get the supply-and-demand issue sorted if the banks take the attitude that Ulster Bank has taken?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)
Arthur Spring: I acknowledge that. However, the reason the bank exists is because it is provided with a licence by the Central Bank for the betterment of the State.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)
Arthur Spring: Ultimately, the cost of housing is going up which is improving the share price of the banks. However, this is all to the detriment of those who want to get on the housing ladder, particularly for first-time buyers who are down to 80% LTV, loan-to-value, ratios as opposed to the 100% RBS, Royal Bank of Scotland, introduced back in the day. I am pressing upon Mr. Brown the need for Ulster...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)
Arthur Spring: I acknowledge that but I must press my point that we need more houses to be built and finance to do that. In the Dublin area and other cities, I have seen many cases where there is a demand for housing but it is not being met by the banks. It will be to the benefit of the banks’ shareholders to complete the circle. How would reducing the bankruptcy term from three years to one...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)
Arthur Spring: Mr. Brown, may I give you some tacit knowledge from dealing with people as a politician and a former banker myself? I thought there would have been an avalanche of applications for bankruptcy after the introduction of the three-year regime.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)
Arthur Spring: There is a hang-up about bankruptcy in Ireland. There is a stigma attached to it with an unwillingness to declare it publicly and admit what is perceived as a failure when it is a consequence of something greater than the individual or the bank. The one-year element will encourage many people to go down the route of bankruptcy. I would like to see an arrangement put in place whereby a...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)
Arthur Spring: Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett is not robbing my ideas anymore.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)
Arthur Spring: We have just announced €2 billion for social housing.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)
Arthur Spring: Where does it appear to do that?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)
Arthur Spring: I am not the Government.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Bank of Ireland (29 Apr 2015)
Arthur Spring: We will see. I thank the witnesses for attending. Will they give an estimate of the market capitalisation or value of Bank of Ireland at the moment?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Bank of Ireland (29 Apr 2015)
Arthur Spring: Approximately.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Bank of Ireland (29 Apr 2015)
Arthur Spring: The value five years ago would have been roughly zero or heading towards negative territory.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Bank of Ireland (29 Apr 2015)
Arthur Spring: What was the lowest point of the share price?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Bank of Ireland (29 Apr 2015)
Arthur Spring: My rough calculation is there was approximately 400% increase from the very lowest point to where it is today. That is largely due to the balance sheet repairing itself. Is that fair enough?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Bank of Ireland (29 Apr 2015)
Arthur Spring: Obviously the staff had an input. The balance sheet of the bank repaired itself and the value comes from that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Bank of Ireland (29 Apr 2015)
Arthur Spring: What percentage of the loan book would be property-related, particularly with respect to mortgages?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Bank of Ireland (29 Apr 2015)
Arthur Spring: That is approximately 200,000 mortgages, or a quarter of the Irish market.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Bank of Ireland (29 Apr 2015)
Arthur Spring: With the increase in the price of property in Ireland, the balance sheet has repaired itself and, ultimately, the share price has repaired itself. Would that be a logical progression as to how it has worked?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Bank of Ireland (29 Apr 2015)
Arthur Spring: For a bank, the asset is the loan, and that is secured by the property. The properties have increased in value, so therefore they are more viable and attractive for securitisation. That is where value comes from.