Calls for NAMA to take 50% discount on loans

THE Government should take at least a 50% discount on the €90bn of property loans it plans to buy from the banks, the Labour Party has said.

The loans will be purchased by the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) in a bid to cleanse the banks’ balance sheets of risky debt and return them to health.

But Labour says there are “fundamental problems” with the draft NAMA legislation, not least the risk that the Government will overpay for the loans.