Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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119. To ask the Minister for Finance if he is aware of the sale of tracker mortgages to vulture funds which were overcharged as a result of the tracker mortgage scandal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11328/23]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Central Bank Tracker Mortgage Examination required lenders to identify all borrowers affected by tracker related issues and to compensate those affected borrowers for tracker related failings on a mortgage in line with the Principles for Redress that formed part of the framework.

The Principles for Redress set out that lenders make redress and compensation offers that were fair and commensurate with the detriment suffered by affected borrowers. This included that such redress would result in affected borrowers being returned to the position they would have been in had the lenders’ failure regarding the customer’s tracker mortgage not arisen. This included that:

- compensation is reasonable and must reflect the detriment involved arising from and/or associated with being on an incorrect rate (such compensation to reflect the specific circumstances of each impacted customer); and

- impacted borrowers to revert to the appropriate Tracker Interest Rate or to be offered the option to revert to an appropriate Tracker Interest Rate, where relevant.

The Central Bank's final report of the supervisory phase of the examination was published in July 2019. It outlined that over 40,000 customer accounts were impacted by lender failings and that almost €700 million of redress and compensation was paid to impacted borrowers and borrowers were returned to the appropriate tracker rate as necessary.

I am aware that some tracker mortgages were sold to investment funds and these loans were subject to the Principles for Redress outlined above if impacted by tracker related issues.

In the case of impacted loans that were sold by lenders, the originating lender was responsible for ensuring that borrowers were put back in the position they would have been if the tracker failing had not occurred.

I have been informed by the Central Bank that this included engaging with any new mortgage entity where necessary to ensure that the customer received redress and compensation and the appropriate tracker rate going forward.