Central Bank warns bad loans ‘tip of the iceberg’

The high level of non-performing loans still being worked through after the financial crash is just the tip of the iceberg, the Central Bank’s new director of credit institutions supervision has warned.

The elevated level of loans mired in arrears is the visible element of the financial crash but “the even higher level of restructured commercial and mortgage debt is the rest of the iceberg sitting below the surface,” according to Ed Sibley.

“Having the crisis so close in the rear view mirror, and in some aspects still with us, means that we have daily reminders of the human and economic cost of it. We cannot have a repeat,” he warned.