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BoI boss rules out blanket debt writeoff

Thursday, November 01 14:16:13

A blanket debt forgiveness of mortgage write off for distressed customers is not on but Bank of Ireland is keen to deal with the problem as fast as possible, its chief executive Richie Boucher told a Dail Committee today.

He hinted that the bank is being held back in this regard by a desire from Government that the problem be dealt with on an industry-wide basis.

Mr Boucher told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform that the bank was processing just 13 mortgage-to-rent cases for customers, one of the products being made available for customers who have unsustainable mortgages, but that it would like to move more quickly to tackle problem mortgages.

"We are keen to get on with things and that is what we are focused on," he told the committee. "There has been some desire to move all of the wagons together in terms of the banking sector and we would have liked to have got on with some stuff more quickly ourselves," he said.

Mr Boucher ruled out a general write-down of debt for the bank's mortgage customers who were in trouble, saying that the capital injected into the bank by the State was "not allocated for write off".

"It's a transfer of someone else's money to someone. We deal with our customers on an individual-by-individual basis," he said. "A blanket transfer of cash from depositors or shareholders to another form of the customer base is not something that we can do."