PTSB should provide more information on mortgage sell off

Labour spokesperson on Finance, Joan Burton TD has called on PTSB, given its refusal to attend the Oireachtas Finance Committee, to provide more information on the mortgages it proposes to sell off, including a breakdown of how many have engaged, how many are now ‘performing’ split mortgages, and a breakdown of when other loan holders stopped repayments.

Deputy Burton said:

“The Dáil will this week debate a bill to ensure vulture funds that purchase so called ‘non-performing loans’ or mortgages from Irish banks, are regulated by the Central Bank. The Labour Party will support this bill, however it will not address the other issues that arise from the proposed sale by PTSB and others.

“Over 6,500 mortgage holders with PTSB have engaged with the bank, and are now in split mortgages where a portion of the loan was warehoused and payments continued on the rest.

“PTSB has so far failed to provide information on how many of these loans will be sold off. It is believed it is selling off up to €800 million of restructured loans.

“For those families that have engaged with the bank, and arrived at a solution this is quite the betrayal. They have no certainty as to how their loan might be treated in future, and whether the arrangements in place will be maintained.

“It is ironic that a bank that was bailed out by the public is now refusing to acknowledge that many homeowners who fell into difficulty engaged with the bank, restructured and are now making repayments.

“Using a technical excuse, PTSB have refused to come before the Finance Committee to answer questions about their loan sell off. In reality there is no block on them providing more information on the loans to be sold.

“The Bank has engaged in a spin exercise and released selective facts to suit its own narrative. This is simply not acceptable for a bank that is 75% publicly owned.

“It should at least inform us of those loans it plans to sell, how many have not engaged at all and for how long, how many are failed restructures, and how many are performing restructured loans. The bank has failed to tell us how it’s restructured loans are performing.”