Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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97. To ask the Minister for Finance the number and value of Irish mortgages currently held in terms of beneficial ownership by both traditional banks and non-bank entities each year from 2022 to 2024 and to date in 2025, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8357/25]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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In general any entity involved in the business of providing credit to consumers has to be authorised as a credit institution, a credit union or a retail credit firm and any non-bank or non-retail credit firm who subsequently services or acquires the legal title to the rights of the creditor under such an credit agreement has to be authorised as a credit servicing firm.

In its ‘Residential Mortgage Arrears & Repossessions Statistics’ the Central Bank publishes, on a quarterly basis, mortgage data in respect of regulated Irish-resident banks, retail credit firms and credit servicing firms that hold or service residential mortgage loans secured on properties located in the State, including the number and value of residential mortgage accounts.

This data is available on the Central Bank’s website and the most recent available data is in respect of the quarter ending September 2024.

The Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Act 2015 made the activity of credit servicing (which includes the management and administration of credit agreements) a regulated activity and as such brought it within the regulatory mandate of the Central Bank. This legislation further provided that, where loan ‘owners’ were unregulated, any credit agreement which provided credit to a relevant borrower had to be serviced by a regulated credit servicing firm. Consequently the consumer protection regulatory framework then applied to regulated credit servicing firms and to the credit agreements serviced by those firms.

Furthermore under the Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Act 2018 (the 2018 Act), which came into effect in 2019, the activity of holding the legal title to credit provided to relevant borrowers and associated ownership activities also became a regulated activity. As such, the consumer protection regulatory framework then applied to such firms and to credit agreements ‘owned’ by such firms from that date.

While credit servicing and legal title ‘ownership’ is a regulated activity, beneficial ‘ownership’ in and of itself is not a regulated activity and firms that only have beneficial rights in relation to credit agreements do not fall within the regulatory remit of the Central Bank.

However, because credit agreements which provided credit to relevant borrowers also have a legal title ‘owner’ and/or a credit servicer, such entities and agreements do fall within the scope of the overall consumer protection framework and as such the relevant borrower has the protections which apply under that framework.