Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 25 January 2017
112. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Finance the number of residential mortgages currently held by non-bank entities; the number held by non-regulated vulture funds; the number of non-residential mortgages currently held by non-bank entities; the number held by non-regulated vulture funds; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3396/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraI refer the Deputy to the Central Bank's Residential Mortgage Arrears and Repossession Statistics for the period ending quarter three 2016, which were published on 12th December 2016 and which may be viewed at http://www.centralbank.ie/polstats/stats/mortgagearrears/Documents/2016q3_ie_mortgage_arrears_statistics.pdf. Details of the number of residential mortgages currently held by non-bank entities, including retail credit firms and unregulated loan owners, are presented in table 4 on page 11 of the Central Bank Q3-2016 bulletin. Details of buy-to-let mortgages held by non-bank entities are presented in table 5 on page 12.
The Deputy will be aware that the Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Act, 2015 introduced a regulatory regime for a new type of entity called a 'credit servicing firm'. 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 that the focus of regulation is directly 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.
