Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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342. To ask the Minister for Finance his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding the sale of mortgage loans in Ireland to funds operating from a separate jurisdiction [42139/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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By virtue of an exemption in Part V of the Central Bank Act 1997, an unregulated entity to whom a cash loan is transferred by a regulated entity is not subject to Central Bank supervision.

As Minister for Finance, I am committed to bringing forward legislation that protects consumers whose loans are sold to unregulated entities. The Government has reiterated this commitment on several occasions. In July and August of this year, my Department ran a public consultation seeking views on its proposed legislation to protect consumers whose loans are sold to unregulated entities.  

The Department of Finance received 19 submissions from a range of respondents, from the financial services industry, consumer groups, public representatives and individuals and other stakeholders. These have now been published on the Department's website at .

Officials in my Department have carefully considered the submissions and are working with the Office of the Attorney General to progress this legislation. It is anticipated that it will be published by the end of this year.

As stated in the public consultation document, the mission of the Government is to ensure that consumers whose loans are sold by a regulated entity to a currently unregulated entity maintain the same regulatory protections as they had prior to the sale, including under various Central Bank Codes including the Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears (CCMA). The proposed legislation is not retrospective. However, it will apply to all owners of loans, regardless of when they were acquired, thus capturing entities which have already purchased loan books.