Irish mortgage holders are still being charged less interest on their homeloans than their eurozone neighbours, despite a number of rate hike announcements last year.

EBS is set to shed a further 200 jobs, with the news coming a day after staff at its parent company AIB’s Northern Ireland operation First Trust Bank won a £2m (€2.3m) payout in bonuses and pay rises.

THE EBS Building Society — which yesterday reported a seven-fold increase in annual after-tax losses, to €590 million — has said that it is open to the concept of “debt forgiveness” for defaulting mortgage customers, but only on an individual case-by-case basis.

EBS Building Society said today its share of the Irish retail mortage market had grown by 6.6% since last year to 21.7%.

THE main banks and building societies are refusing to say whether customers defaulting on their mortgages can voluntarily surrender their homes rather than endure repossession proceedings in the court.