Ireland’s central bank lays down tougher goals on mortgage debt
IRELAND’S central bank and bailout lenders set the country’s lenders tougher targets yesterday to solve a mortgage arrears crisis that has left one in five of all Irish homeowners unable to repay their loans.
Ireland took an €85bn bailout in 2010 after rescuing its banks, whose easy lending had fuelled a credit bubble, and the central bank has been pressing lenders to get to grips with mortgage arrears.
It has agreed with Ireland’s international lenders – the EU, IMF and ECB – to require banks to conclude agreements with 15 per cent of customers with mortgage arrears over 90 days by the end of this year.
That compares with a previous target of only offering solutions to 50 per cent of distressed borrowers by the end of 2013.