Permanent TSB had €161m mortgage loans on payment breaks at end of October

Eamonn Crowley, Group Chief Financial Officer at the publication of the Permanent TSB figures. New lending of €900m over the first nine months is down 23% from the same period last year. Picture: Colm Mahady

Permanent TSB had 917 accounts worth €161m on mortgage breaks at the end of October, down sharply from the €1.6bn worth of mortgage breaks it had agreed through the Covid-19 crisis, according to the latest figures from the lender. 

However, the figures in a trading update revealed the fallout from the Covid crisis, with new lending of €900m over the first nine months down 23% from the same period last year. It said though that lending had increased strongly in the quarter ahead of the introduction of the new Covid restrictions. 

The lender, which is 75% owned by the Government, said its performing or non-soured residential mortgage loans, will be to €11.6bn from a shrinking total performing loan book of €13.6bn when it completes plans to sell a group of landlord or buy-to-let loans. That leaves €1.1bn in loans that are not performing, or 7.7% of all its loans.  

Payment breaks             

Last week, AIB and Bank of Ireland in their updates issued figures on the number of payment breaks they held as of mid-October. 

AIB said it had 3,985 mortgage payment breaks on loans worth €604m and had 5,157 breaks for loans to small business customers worth around €320m. 

Bank of Ireland said around 6,400 of its mortgage accounts worth €1.1bn in the Republic were on payment breaks and had also agreed with SMEs 2,800 payment breaks that were worth €800m.

Broker Davy said that Permanent TSB posted an impairment charge of €20m in the third quarter, "indicating that PTSB may be seeking to recognise a greater share of provisions upfront in 2020 than previously expected".

The broker currently forecasts Permanent TSB will post pre-tax losses of €85.2m this year and losses of €75.5m and €22.7m in 2021 and 2022.