85% of Berehaven savers refunded

-Credit union had €10m deposits

The majority of people with money in the Berehaven Credit Union have already received compensation cheques in the post.

The Central Bank has said that since an order was made to wind up the institution last week, it had refunded 85% of depositors who, together, had €10m on account in Castletownbere.

The 3,100 people who have already received their money were paid out of the Central Bank’s general deposit protection account, which had €370m in reserves when the move was made to appoint liquidators to Berehaven.

The State’s deposit guarantee scheme covers all deposits up to €100,000.

An independent assessment of the Berehaven Credit Union, carried out earlier this year, said that there were likely to be no deposits over that amount so all savers would get their money back in full.

Loans to the credit union remained due to Berehaven’s liquidators.

The Central Bank said that people who are still awaiting funds do not need to make an application because the cheques will issue automatically for all balances.

“Remaining deposits are being progressed as quickly as possible and it is expected that further payments will be made shortly,” the Central Bank said.

“Depositors are advised that they do not need to make any application to the [scheme] for repayment as this will be processed automatically.”

Last week, the High Court approved the order to wind up the credit union after it was told it would be too costly and unfair to burden another institution with the bad practices and legacy issues which led to the demise of Berehaven.

A Garda investigation is continuing into the credit union. However, it will reportedly be some time before detectives are in a position to present a file to the DPP.