Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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74. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of securitisation operations made by banks in each of the past five years which involved the use of mortgage debt as an asset; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11294/19]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Securitisation is a process by which a financial institution, through the creation of a security, assigns the benefits of its financial assets, such as its mortgage loans, to investors in return for a capital payment by investors.  As such it is a process which can be utilised by institutions for their liquidity, funding, capital or other commercial purposes.  Under the EU Capital Markets Union, securitisation is seen as an important channel for diversifying funding sources for the real economy.

While the Central Bank does not publish data on the number of securitisations, it has advised that over the five year period 2014 to 2018, there were a total of seven securitisations completed by the retail banks.  Table A.6 of the Central Bank Money and Banking Statistics in the following provides data on the outstanding amounts of securitised mortgage loans and the position at the end of December for each of the last five years is as follows:-

2014 - €37.4bn;

2015 - €33.6bn;

2016 - €33.3bn;

2017 - €27.3bn;

2018 - €21.6bn.