KBC Ireland chief sees no repeat of 2010 mortgage arrears crisis    

Roebben says 1,604 accounts were still on mortgage breaks at the end of October

Peter Roebben, chief executive, KBC Bank Ireland

The boss of KBC Bank in Ireland has pledged there will be no repeat of the 2010 mortgage arrears crisis here, as the bank works through the remaining number of customers on payment breaks amid the Covid-19 crisis.         

Chief executive Peter Roebben said 1,604 accounts were still on mortgage breaks at the end of October, equivalent to €317m in outstanding mortgages, but down sharply down from the peak earlier this year. And the total number of its bad loans had fallen during the year even "under the extreme stress of the pandemic", Mr Roebben said in an interview.         

House prices defied its worst fears to remain broadly steady but the uncertainty over lockdowns and Brexit next year made forecasting the market in 2021 evn more difficult, he told the Irish Examiner. He would not comment on the future of rival Ulster Bank after it emerged last month that its owner NatWest was reviewing the future of the lender in the Republic.   

Asked about the entry of Avant Money into the Irish mortgage market, Mr Roebben said KBC's share of the Irish mortgage market had increased in the third quarter, and he expected the share to rise further in the current quarter.

He said it had no new cases to report after the Central Bank closed its investigation into the industry-wide tracker mortgage scandal. In September, the regulator slapped KBC with a fine of €18.3m and a heavy reprimand, reflecting the bank's oversized role in the scandal, experts said. The bank yesterday posted a net profit of €14.4m in the quarter and a net loss of €41m in the first nine months of the year.