New Measures To Tackle Mortgage Arrears Unveiled

Unprecedented measures to tackle the mortgage arrears crisis have been unveiled by the government and the Central Bank.

The proposals include greater emphasis on writing down debt, while they also acknowledge that some borrowers will have to volunteer to surrender possession of properties.

Banks will be now be expected to reach sustainable solutions with 20% of borrowers in arrears by the end of July.

That figure will increase to 30% by the end of the third quarter of 2013 and 50% by the end of the year.

Alongside this the Central Bank has begun a consultation process on the code of conduct on mortgage arrears.

Part of this will see the restriction that blocked banks from making more than three unsolicited contacts with customers per month dropped.

The Central Bank has not found the banks were harassing customers in its site visits to banks, but was concerned that the limited contacts were hampering lenders dealing with arrears.

(H)