Bank of Ireland accounts for just 6% of repossession proceedings last year

Bank of Ireland accounted for just 6 per cent of the court repossession proceedings issued last year, according to the bank's governor, Archie Kane, who was speaking as the lender announced it had raised €1 billion in fresh funding.

Addressing shareholders at the bank's annual general court at University College Dublin, Mr Kane insisted the bank's mortgage solutions were working and said it had sought repossession orders in relation to only 144 troubled borrowers last year.

While the lender held 21 per cent of the issued mortgages in Ireland, he said, it accounted for only 10 per cent of the owner-occupier mortgages in arrears, putting it "in a very different position when compared to the rest of the industry".

“For the one in 10 who may be in financial difficulty, we strive to help them,” he said, his comments coming in spite of a number of suggestions from shareholders that it was being heavy-handed with some customers in long-term arrears.

The bank said it had raised €1 billion through the sale of seven-year covered bonds, which were backed by a pool of 100 per cent Irish residential mortgages.

This was the latest in a series of covered bond, senior and subordinated debt issuance by the group over the past two years. The strong investor demand for the sale “underlines the group’s ability to access funding from international capital markets at competitive pricing,” it said.

The announcement followed an earlier interim management statement, which said the bank had traded in line with expectations during the first four months of 2015.

It said the group’s customer loan volume was €85 billion in April, compared with €82 billion at the end of December 2014. It noted the macroeconomic environment and outlook in Ireland and Britain – the bank’s two principal markets – continue to be favourable.

Mr Kane said the bank planned to issue up to €33 billion in new lending between 2013 and 2017.

P

ricing strategies He said the bank’s pricing strategies

were crucial in delivering returns. This assertion elicited a number of questions from shareholders about the bank’s controversial policy on variable mortgage rates, which remain uncompetitive in wider European terms and in the context of the European Central Bank’s near-zero base rates.

Independent TD Shane Ross claimed the two main banks were exploiting the lack of competition in the market “to gouge those who are vulnerable”, namely holders of variable-rate mortgages.

Mr Kane said the standard variable rate was being kept under review, noting the bank was in a competitive market with five “significant” players.

Chief executive Ritchie Boucher said the group was focused on fixed-rate loan products, which account for more than half of new lending, because they are "mutually appropriate" to mitigate risk to the customer and to the bank.

All resolutions proposed at the meeting were passed.