Former head of Ulster Bank 'regrets offering 100% mortgages'
The former head of Ulster Bank has said that he regrets offering 100% mortgages because of the impact they had on the property sector.
Cormac McCarthy said that allowing customers to borrow the entire price of a house led banks to become too exposed to the property market.
Mr McCarthy was chief executive of Ulster Bank from 2004 to 2011, and before that ran First Active, which was the first bank in Ireland to offer 100% mortgages.
But he told the Banking Inquiry that borrowers did not need to take out 100% mortgages to end up in negative equity.
