Nama may reverse ban on loan buy-backs
Yesterday, Nama chairman Frank Daly said if they were left with a “rump of assets that nobody is interested in except perhaps the actual debtor”, then the possibility may be considered down the line.
Currently, defaulting debtors in Nama are prohibited under legislation from buying back their own loans, unlike debtors of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation.
Mr Daly was addressing an business breakfast attended by members of the Construction Industry Federation in Cork where he was asked by Stephen McCarthy, founder of Astra Construction, if CIF members would in the future have the opportunity to buy back loans.
Mr McCarthy said such a move would help members to “get back into business in a functioning market and stand alone again”.
Mr Daly said any move in that direction would have to be carefully considered and public opinion gauged.
“What the Government has to balance here is the perception of defaulting debtors getting property back at a discounted price,” Mr Daly said.
He said the prohibition would not be lifted in the short term but that “time is a great leveller”.
By 2020, if the agency had assets that nobody but the debtor is interested in, then Mr Daly said he “could see something like this being re-opened”.
Asked about Nama leaks — including allegations that confidential information was passed to individuals outside the agency and that it had engaged in a deliberate process of manipulating the valuation of property — Mr Daly said the latter claim had been “comprehensively dismantled” when the agency appeared before the Public Accounts Committee.
He said in his view, while it did appear that two individuals had released confidential information, the “extent of the leakage has been grossly exaggerated”.
Mr Daly said he couldn’t give details because the matter was under Garda investigation. He said that, in his opinion, “there was a whole thing built up around those allegations”.
“I mean here’s the reality — we are collecting money for the Irish taxpayer, we are collecting that off people, they are always going to have issues. There are always going to be people who will not like Nama and who will want to undermine us.”
Mr Daly said when people see headlines about Nama leaks, they should ask themselves “who benefits?”. He said he expected there would be more leaks and allegations but that people should “look a little bit beyond the headlines”. He said while some of the media had not accepted the allegations unquestioningly, they were surprised by those who had, given that most claims had “emanated from an individual we had reported to the gardaí”.
-Nearly €150m worth of sales, including Fota Island Resort and River Lee Hotel.
-More than €12m worth of family homes sold in Cork under Nama’s deferred payment initiative — where the home buyer pays 80% of the property value up front and up to 20% is paid by the mortgage provider. The scheme, which ends in May, was designed to protect against a fall in residential property prices.
-Fit-out of Island House, Eastgate to facilitate acquisition by the pharmaceutical multinational Eli Lily.
-€30m investment in Opera Lane and €4.3m joint venture refurbishment of Acton’s Hotel, Kinsale.
-Delivery of 90 social housing units to date.
-Delivery of site in Mallow for a new school and sites at Midleton, Maryborough, and Rochestown under discussion.
