Permanent TSB not ruling out more soured loan sales
Permanent TSB (PTSB) has not ruled out further non-performing loan sales, while it deserves to be fined over the tracker mortgage scandal, its chief executive has said.
Jeremy Masding told the Oireachtas Finance Committee that the bank "was not ruling anything in or out" when it came to reducing its levels of non-performing loans from 10% down to a target of 3.5% to 5%.
However, to reduce it to that level will take up to three years, Mr Masding told TDs and Senators.
The economy was approaching the end of a positive cycle and PTSB did not want its balance sheet to be exposed to shocks, he said.
Nothing is being ruled out including loan sales, Mr Masding said, but the bank is also open to other measures.
The bank has paid out €59m of €60m in redress and compensation to victims of the tracker mortgage scandal. There were 1,983 customers identified, Mr Masding said.
The bank's product assurance director Breege Timoney said on top of the €60m in redress and compensation, it had cost the bank a further €50m in staff and contractors to administer its tracker scheme, and another €20m in other expenses.
On top of that €130m was an extra €35m that was provided for any possible future costs, including any fine from the Central Bank, Ms Timoney said.
Mr Masding said PTSB "expects to be fined, and should be fined" over its role in the tracker scandal, which happened when more than a dozen lenders wrongly put almost 40,000 customers on more expensive loans.
He said the bank would accept whatever penalty was handed down from the Central Bank and that it "would not be a negotiation" with the regulator.
