NAMA team still haven’t seen €77bn loan files

THE Government has still not seen the records or books of up to €77 billion worth of development loans that it will soon take over from the country’s banks.

Just weeks before the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA) is passed into law, the Department of Finance has admitted that its plans are based on “aggregate data which has been provided by the institutions”.

The department has not been able to “verify the integrity of the data” because “the NAMA team has not had direct access to individual transaction records and loan files”.

The statement was made in the draft NAMA Business Plan published last night, which said that €15bn of loans taken over by the state will not be paid back by property developers.

The document said at least 20% of the loan sums owed to NAMA will default.

“Of the €77bn nominal value of loans acquired, €62bn will be repaid by borrowers and loan defaults or debt restructuring will occur on €15bn,” it stated, adding these were “conservative and prudent assumptions”.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan told the Dáil the figures in the report “are liable to be adjusted further as the detailed analysis and due diligence is carried out”.

The plan projected that by the time the NAMA plan is completed by 2020 and loans with interest are repaid, it will have made a profit of €4.8bn.

However, Fine Gael’s finance spokesman Richard Bruton said “the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny and the Loch Ness Monster are all more credible propositions” than the figures that have been given in the business plan.

He said: “There is no analysis and no depth of information on how the rather extraordinary assumptions were arrived at.”

The NAMA Bill last night survived its first vote in the Dáil.

The bill was approved by 77 to 73 on a second stage vote.

The business plan is expected to be passed into law by early November and the top 10 to 15 loans – which are worth a total of €16bn – will be transferred by the end of the year.

This means that “Christmas will come early for the top developers and bankers”, according to Labour’s finance spokes-woman Joan Burton.

But Mr Lenihan said: “NAMA is not designed to be and will not be permitted to operate in practice as a bail-out mechanism for developers who have operated irresponsibly”.

The Government hopes to have dealt with the top 32 loans – worth €24bn – by January, and the top 100 – worth €38bn – by February.