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TOP EXECUTIVES FROM Ireland’s four main mortgage lenders are to be questioned by TDs on their banks’ progress in dealing with mortgage arrears next week.
Bosses from Bank of Ireland, AIB, Permanent TSB and Ulster Bank will face the Oireachtas Finance Committee starting from next Tuesday, about seven months after they last gave Leinster House briefings.
Their appearance follows on from the appearance of the director of the Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI) Lorcan O’Connor, who will brief members of developments within the ISI this Thursday.
“According to the latest figures released by the Central Bank, the numbers of homeowners in mortgage arrears of over three months has fallen for the first time in almost five years,” said committee chairman Ciarán Lynch TD.
However, those figures mask a very worrying trend in long term arrears whereby those behind in repayments by more than two years has risen. Behind these statistics are real people struggling to make ends meet.
The four banks have been set targets by the Central Bank to provide sustainable, long-term solutions for homeowners in arrears. The last time the bank executives provided updates to the committee on these targets they were criticised for not being direct enough.
The figures the bank’s used for measuring their progress was also criticised, with the banks producing evidence of letters sent to mortgage holders. TDs insisted that simply sending letters does not count as engagement but the banks insisted they were backed by the Central Bank.
IMHO
The Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation will appear before the committee tomorrow along with the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) and the Free Legal Advice Centre (FLAC) to discuss the issues surrounding the mortgage crisis.
It comes as the IMHO says it has entered into an agreement with Grant Thornton Debt Solutions Limited to provide additional advice and support to people in financial difficulty requiring insolvency services.
The IMHO say that the service will be staffed and funded by Grant Thornton and if a client requires bankruptcy services the IMHO wil progress this free of charge.
“Since November 2013 the IMHO has received over 1,000 completed Standard Financial Statements’ for those in mortgage difficulty, said IMHO director Constantin Gurdgiev.
Many of these clients are already being provided with assistance in relation to their mortgage by the IMHO, a large proportion however have on average have four other creditors and thus may require a formal arrangement to bring finality to their debt problems. This initiative will ensure that all clients have all their debt dealt with in a holistic manner that leaves no issue unresolved.
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How many properties does the Minister for justice own? Is it 12 or 14 now and this is the guy who is dealing with insolvency seems to me like leaving the fox in charge of the hen house.
You’ve hit the nail on the bloody head ,there !
Give a man a gun he can rob a bank, give a man a bank he can rob a country
Our Bank Executives ,
Ireland’s version of the Untouchables…
“People are supposed to have currency that’s issued by their governments directly which doesn’t carry interest.”
But never forget what happened the accountant in the lift ;) Touchable
Bit late for questioning Banks now.
The power of banking should not be left in the hands of market capitalism and should instead be used to benefit society as a whole. Many people quite reasonably believe that the banks are loaning out the money that they hold on deposit (or fixed multiples thereof) when they issue loans but this is not a correct understanding of how banking works. In reality, a banking licence is literally a license to create money. Around 97% of the money in circulation in the world today is created electronically by the commercial banks when they issue loans. In issuing credit, banks simultaneously create brand new deposits in our bank accounts. Quite simply, the loan itself creates new money. The banks bring this new money into existence by pressing a computer keyboard, nothing more. Money doesn’t grow on trees but if you hold a banking licence it grows on your IBM . The money is extinguished (uncreated if you like) as the borrower pays back the loan and the outstanding principal amount falls. The bank of course gets to charge interest on the loan which it created with a casual wag of a finger. This interest which the borrower must also find is not extinguished but is held by the bank as retained profits.
For most people, the biggest purchase of their lives will be the family home and so the mortgage will be the largest debt they ever undertake. A bank can create a €200,000 mortgage in a couple of seconds with a few keystrokes. Over a term of 25 years at an interest rate of 4% to 5%, you will pay somewhere between €110k and €150k in interest payments to the bank on top of the principal repayment. This means that a person on an average annual wage of €25k net will work for 4 to 6 years and hand every single cent that they earn in that time to the bank to repay interest on the money which the bank created from nothing in a matter of seconds.
This is the enormous power that has been granted to the private banks which they have used to massively exploit the rest of us through the debt mechanism. The banking function needs to be taken from the failed and grossly profiteering parasite banks and returned to the rightful ownership of the citizens.
Even the mainstream media are finally beginning to draw attention to the great con that is commercial banking.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/18/truth-money-iou-bank-of-england-austerity
Massive nationalization is not necessarily the only option besides hands off regulation from the time of the great depression right up until the 1980s there were no major biking crashes that brought down economies because depository and investment banking was separated you’re not allowed to gamble with your customers savings and deposits, u were barred from trading basic commodities like oil and wheat, there was also a lot more companies that were owned persons rather than being publicly traded, so if they risk money it’s their own money so they will not take insane risks with it. Even just going back to those Great Depression era rules would make sure that what happened in 2008 would never happen again.
Problem is the power of the banking lobby over the EU and US government’s is enormous. That’s why the only serious public issue in the Western world right now should be an end to the legal concept of corporate personhood and public financing of Elections if we can get that done we break the power special interests have over this policy area and pass some sane regulations.
People still got rich and make lots of money when those rules were in place, and it was for a more stable.
Too often people think the only two choices are wantin neo-liberalism or full on communism social democracy with some common sense regulation would give everybody a high-quality life while still allowing people who want to be entrepreneurs to do what they want to do as long as they play by the rules.
Why should society forfeit the enormous privilege of money creation to commercial institutions?
The commercial banks use this privilege to enrich themselves at the expense of the citizens. The banks exist to make profit and have utter disregard for the wellbeing of society as whole.
Why for example could Ireland not establish a state owned residential mortgage bank to issue home loans to owner occupiers at zero interest?
In this way the banking function would be utilized to assist people to house themselves while freeing up money to be spent in the domestic economy to stimulate employment etc instead of disappearing into the bank balance sheets as interest payments.
You know the way, Troika etc keep saying ‘more needs to be done’ That means repossessions right? They should probably just get on with it in fairness. Its sad people cant pay their mortgages and I feel for them but lets be realistic here, if you don’t pay your rent you get thrown out too.
Capitaine ,darling , homeowners are called that for a reason .. they own their home ,hence , they have more protection .. Sad I know – but that’s the way this cookie crumbles ;)
Hmmm I dunno, The bank has the deeds of my house and will have until I pay off the last payment. They are the rules or am I wrong? I see your point ref protection but that is more of a step by step way of throwing people out as opposed to protection. As far I can see anyway.
Capitaine
You are the homeowner until a judge says that you are no longer the homeowner !
The banks themselves rarely own mortgage is anymore. A lot of World Bank’s chopped up the mortgages I’m with the help of rating agencies mislabeled these exploding mortgages where is a new people with defaultdown the road as AAA investments selling them to investment companies who in turn sold them to easy marks in the middle classes who thought they could class b rich too
But they let the scam become too complex and eventually the giant his cards got away from them and the banks were stuck with many of these mortgages before they sold them all when the crush came.
So they took this information to govt ministers who did not understand economics and conned them into a blanket Ott gaurentte. So basically they gambled and lost and we pay for the gambling losses but they don’t want homeowners to get help from govt tit the way they did. Mortgages, bad banks, private debt and new regulatory frame work like a separation between depository an investment banking etc all should have been part of one package instead we get to massive bailour for nearly nothing in return.
whynotme. Sorry, home owners only own the title deed to the property, not the property itself.
No one can own the land. Unless you can show me a receipt from mother Earth to say she sold Herelf to you and you bought her, then all you can have is title deed, which was given by kings etc eons ago.
Same for your car, you reg irster it and you become the Keeper, not the owner.
Apply for a pass port to get you through under maritime law at air ports etc and read it where it says the minister owns it, not you.
Reg ister the birth of your creation through the waters of the mother- law of the sea-and you become the guardian of the child and the state the owner. The child has a birth cert and is bonded/enslaved because we signed in ignorance. Research and learn where all the birth cert bonds are kept and who trades them and what amount of money is created out of thin air on the birth of every human child on the planet.
yes , all you ever get back from the bank when you pay off the loan is title deeds, not the ownership.
Property is registered with the land registry- reg- belonging to the Reg -King.
@ Catherine M
Powerful stuff!!!
Bonus prize to whoever can explain “fee simple” in a journal comment.
Wrong as usual Catherine. In terms of land, the state is the ultimate owner (this is what makes compulsory purchase possible) but in relation to a car – there is both a legal owner and a registered keeper.
It’s an ownership interest in land, limited by taxation, state law etc, it’s the most common form of land ownership in common law countries.
They should ask Boucher why he doesn’t own so many shares in his bank and has kept his salary of over €800,000 to himself instead of buying share in a business he sees as doing well? Hmmm.
Jim, he owns plenty shares in the Bank. You probably read Ross on Indo at weekend. He accused RB of not buying shares in the company during the past year. As usual Ross misleads his few readers.
Boucher is a wise man!
He knows the shares are not worth buying!
He might be right!
I really dislike banks
What about the 7 BILLION EURO !!! the banks were given to apply to troubled mortgages ??????
I hope the PAC grills these psychopaths about this !
Why are Irish people is cynical?
Because the Fianna Fáil Government rescued the developers and banks at the expense of the Irish Taxpayer!
Thus was done without a referendum. By Government decree €100,000 debts was transferred to every man women and child!
Shame on Fianna Fáil!
Martin hang your head in shame!
Bank Executives do not understand hardship!
They do not understand the emotions of human beings who are doing everything within their power and resources to meet their obligations including mortgage payments.
All mortgages in excess of current market value should be “parked” indefinitely?
Germany is planning to increase interest rates!
A 3 per cent increase in a mortgage of €300,000 would increase repayment by a minimum of €9,000 Per Annum.
The Government needs to take decisive action now!
There are over 300,000 tracker mortgages in Ireland.
The Banks that the Irish Taxpayer bailed out is now going to bankrupt many Irish Taxpayers!
Not just!
We should have left the Euro and devalued!
We should have adopted the policies of Iceland who went burst in 2008 – the same year as Ireland.
Today Iceland has booming exports having devalued and almost full employment.
TDs should listen to economists who understand economics.
The austerity programme is NOT working!
It is destroying Irish Families!
Thanks Enda!
Change your policies!
So effectively IMHO are providing a free public PIP through Grant Thornton.
Who’s paying for this? You can bet your backside it’s not David Hall and his buddies. The Banks are funding this, otherwise the free public PIPs would have be given to MABS, who are free and independent.
IMHO have hand picked the sfs’ that are sustainable and can be worked with the Banks on.
The other couple of hundred thousand sfs’ will be passed back to MABS to try and sort out.
have your say