Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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155. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of vulture funds operating here; the name of each vulture fund; the number of distressed mortgages in each portfolio; the protections in place for the tenants of such funds; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21621/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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There is no agreement on its precise meaning of the term “vulture funds” and it has come to have pejorative connotations. I presume that the Deputy intends referring to private equity funds. The Deputy will be aware that international private equity funds invested much needed capital in our economy during a period of high risk and uncertainty.

Central Bank data published on 16 March 2017 provided the following data in respect of mortgages held by what they called “unregulated loan owners”.

The total number of Principal Dwelling House (PDH) mortgages held by unregulated loan owners stands at 12,234, valued at €2.4 billion.  The total number of mortgages in the Buy to Let (BTL) category was 5,955, valued at €1.7 billion. Of these loans, the number of PDH mortgages in arrears was 7,445.  The number of BTL mortgages in arrears was 4,494. 

The full report is available at:.

Other than that, the Central Bank does not routinely publish data on entities which are not regulated by the Central Bank and it is not possible to provide the list sought by the Deputy.

As the Deputy will be aware, the Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Act, 2015 was enacted in July 2015. It was introduced by the previous Government to fill the consumer protection gap where loans were sold by the original lender to an unregulated firm. The Act introduced a regulatory regime for a new type of entity called a 'credit servicing firm'. Credit Servicing Firms are now subject to the provisions of Irish financial services law that apply to 'regulated financial service providers'.

Under the Act, purchasers of loan books must either be regulated by the Central Bank themselves or else the loans must be serviced by a credit servicing firm that is regulated by the Central Bank. The significant point is that the regulation is focussed at the point of contact with the customer. Therefore relevant borrowers, whose loans are sold to third parties, maintain the same regulatory protections they had prior to the sale, including under the various statutory codes (such as the Consumer Protection Code, Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears) issued by the Central Bank of Ireland and the Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement) Act 2013 (Section 48) (Lending to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) Regulations 2015 which came into operation in July 2016. It is also important to highlight that the transfer of a loan from one entity to another does not change the terms of the contract or the borrower's rights and obligations under the original contract.

A register of Credit Servicing Firms authorised or transitionally authorised by the Central Bank is available on their website at .

Finally I would highlight that tenant relations are governed by multiple pieces of legislation mainly under the aegis of my colleague, the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government.