Banks face grilling on mortgage arrears

Banks are to be questioned over their efforts to address the mortgage arrears crisis with the chairman of the Oireachtas finance committee warning that TDs and senators expected answers.

Committee chairman Ciarán Lynch, a Labour TD, said AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB, and Ulster Bank would come before the committee in the first week of September with an expectation that they would move to longer-term, sustainable solutions to the mortgage crisis.

The scale of the problem was highlighted over the weekend as new Central Bank figures showed almost 100,000 home loans are now more than three months in arrears. It prompted warnings that bank could come under more strain unless ways are found to ease the crisis.