Banks ‘only dealing with easy arrears options’

The latest monthly mortgage arrears figures show the six main banks are still only dealing with the “easy options” and do not indicate how many houses were either sold voluntarily or repossessed, according to the Irish Mortgage Holders’ Organisation (IMHO).

David Hall of the IMHO said the Department of Finance figures showed of the 116,481 households in arrears, 80,487 were more than 90 days behind, a drop of just 367. However, he said there were no details of the 57,000 in arrears more than one and two years and he feared the 14,509 who have opted for term extensions were mostly younger households.

He also warned there is no information on whether the 13,619 who opted for ‘arrears capitalisation’ solution had actually addressed the reasons why they went into arrears in the first place. “These banks are just lobbing the arrears on top of the mortgage but we have no idea whether these householders’ financial problems have been properly assessed.”

Overall the figures show just 17% of those in arrears more than 90 days have seen their mortgages permanently restructured, leaving over 66,000 to be dealt with.

However, the total accounts in arrears slightly fell since the end of October by 1,230 to 116,481.

Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman Pearse Doherty claimed the Government was letting the banks off the hook because they weren’t playing their role in resolving the crisis.

“I do welcome the slight decreases in overall arrears but nearly three years into this government and six years on from the banking crisis, the fact that 83% of arrears cases over 90 days are not in permanent restructuring is proof of a lack of urgency. There is no urgency from Minister Noonan or the Government and the banks are taking advantage of this attitude to squeeze struggling homeowners.”

Almost 50,000 mortgages were permanently restructured in November, up 4,000 compared to August. Split mortgages were the fastest growing solution, up from 3,688 in September to 5,814 in November.

The number of buy to let mortgages in arrears remained relatively unchanged at 34,246 for November.

Meanwhile, 10,316 permanent restructures were in put in place, which was an increase of 296 on the previous month.