Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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114. To ask the Minister for Finance if it is legal for Bank of Scotland to sell the debt of a person (details supplied) in County Meath to a company, in view of the fact that the company was only formed on 2 December 2014. [16335/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am not in a position to give legal advice to individuals. My role as Minister for Finance is to put in place an appropriate legislative framework for the regulation of the financial services sector.

The Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015 will deal with situations where loan books are sold. The Bill will require entities dealing with the consumer to be authorised by the Central Bank and subject to its Codes of Conduct. Dealing with the consumer is credit servicing and the definition of credit servicing is broad. Owners of loan books who deal directly with consumers, that is, who are servicing their own loan books, will be regulated. Otherwise they can have the loan book serviced by a regulated credit servicing firm.The Bill was published in January and second stage of the Bill was taken in the Dáil on 4 February. Since then, my officials have been in contact with the Central Bank and with the Office of the Attorney General to further progress the legislation. The Bill will continue its progress through the legislative process and I look forward to further discussion of the Bill at Committee Stage.