Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by the Central Bank that under the Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears, lenders must establish a centralised and dedicated Arrears Support Unit (ASU), which must be adequately staffed, to manage cases under the Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process (MARP), set out in the CCMA. 

It is the responsibility of the lender's ASU to carry out certain functions under the CCMA, for example:

- The lender must pass the completed standard financial statement to its ASU immediately on receipt and provide a copy of the standard financial statement to the borrower - provision 32 CCMA.

- A completed standard financial statement must be assessed in a timely manner by the lender's ASU - provision 35 CCMA.

- A lender's ASU must formally review the borrower's case, including the standard financial statement, immediately, where a borrower ceases to adhere to the terms of an alternative repayment arrangement - provision 48 CCMA.

- A lender must allow the borrower a reasonable period of time to consider submitting an appeal to the Appeals Board, which must be at least 20 business days from the date of notification of the decision of the lender's ASUprovision 54 CCMA. 

The CCMA also requires that each branch (or office of a lender in the case of a lender who does not operate a branch network), must have at least one person with specific responsibility for dealing with arrears and pre arrears cases and for liaising with the lender's ASU in respect of these cases.

Therefore, while the CCMA requires that a lender's ASU, as opposed to the branch, is charged with managing cases under the MARP process, the CCMA does not preclude a borrower from liaising with the lender's ASU through the branch staff member with specific responsibility for dealing with arrears and pre arrears cases and for liaising with the lender's ASU in respect of these cases.