Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 39: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will encourage lenders to allow borrowers who are moving home to be able to keep their tracker mortgage rate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19286/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The lending institutions in Ireland, including those in which the State has a significant shareholding, are independent commercial entities. It is not appropriate for me, as Minister for Finance, to comment on or become involved in the detailed mortgage position of mortgage holders.

The Central Bank has advised me that they have no role in interest rate setting; neither does the Central Bank regulate 'financial products'. However, given the high profile nature of the mortgage market in the current environment, all mortgage lenders have been requested to submit to the Central Bank all changes to their mortgage products in advance of offering such products to their customers.

I welcome the positive move by one of the mortgage lenders to allow customers to transfer a tracker rate mortgage to another mortgage so as to facilitate moving home.

In an examination of tracker mortgage switching practices, the Central Bank identified a number of concerns in relation to the level of disclosure and transparency when customers moved from tracker rate mortgages to other forms of mortgages. The Central Bank subsequently included specific provisions in the revised Consumer Protection Code, which came into effect on 1 January 2012.

Further details of the review and a press release on the examination of tracker mortgages is available on the Central Bank's website www.centralbank.ie.