Mortgage restructuring to bring families back into economy

Thousands of mortgages will be restructured by the banks in a bid to bring debt-ridden families back into the economy, the Government will announce today.

A quota of mortgage arrears to be redrawn by banks, and in some cases written off, will form part of a quarterly benchmarking system with the state-covered banks.

However, the agreement with lenders is being announced in parallel with legislation which will allow banks to repossess homes in large numbers from struggling borrowers.