Banks 'in denial' about mortgage crisis
A total of 37,000 buy-to-let properties, with debts of €11bn, were in arrears at the end of June, figures released today have shown.
According to the Central Bank, 29% of the €32bn borrowed for buy-to-let mortgages are in arrears of over 90 days.
The figures were published at the Irish Banking Federation Conference in Dublin, during which a Central Bank official warned that the banks are in denial about the mortgage crisis.
Fiona Muldoon, a director and insurance supervisor with the Central Bank, called for an urgency of purpose from the banks in addressing the problem if they are to remain viable.
She said: "My question four years in is - what is it that we are waiting for on mortgage arrears?
"The hope for an economic recovery, hope that house prices will come back, hope that PIA will handle the issue for you?
"This is the stuff of denial.
"Hope is not a strategy – any more than anger. The path to viability will be through taking each loan, each customer and working out a solution that both responds to their needs and to a bank’s need to collect where it can."
