Lenders address expert group on mortgage arrears

FINANCIAL REGULATOR Matthew Elderfield heard from AIB, Bank of Ireland and other lenders when an expert group appointed by the Government to recommend ways to help people in mortgage arrears met yesterday.

Ulster Bank, EBS, Permanent TSB and GE Money representatives also addressed the mortgage arrears and personal debt group, which is tasked with presenting recommendations to the Government to help individuals and small businesses in financial difficulty.

The Department of Finance was the venue for the two-day meeting of the committee, announced in February by Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan and Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan.

Apart from Mr Elderfield, the group also includes Pat Farrell of the Irish Banking Federation; David Duffy of the Economic and Social Research Institute; Paul Joyce of the Free Legal Advice Centres; and Patricia Rickard-Clarke of the Law Reform Commission.

Hugh Cooney, an insolvency accountant with BDO Simpson Xavier, is chairman of the committee, which has already met three times. The group will consider how to reform personal insolvency and bankruptcy regulations and establish, as far as possible, how non-judicial settlement proceedings can be formulated.

It is focusing initially on bringing forward recommendations to deal with the growing mortgage arrears problem and will later address the issue of personal debt.

On Tuesday the group received an update on a review of the mortgage interest supplement scheme from the Department of Social Protection, while the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (Mabs) gave its recommendations for dealing with mortgage arrears.

An update on local authority housing issues was presented by the Department of the Environment.

The revised programme for Government, approved last October, included measures to help protect family homes and to help those who fall into unmanageable debt.