LENDER ‘OUTSOURCING EVICTIONS’ – DOHERTY

ULSTER Bank has been accused of ‘outsourcing evictions’ after it was announced it is selling 6,500 mortgages in arrears to US investment funds.

The loans – which are, on average, almost four years behind on payments – total €1.6billion. That represents a loan from Ulster Bank of €250,000 on each home.

They are split between 2,900 buy-to-let loans – where people bought a house or apartment to rent out – and 3,600 own-home loans.

Almost three quarters of the own-home loans for sale are in deep arrears, first going behind on repayments between seven and nine years ago.

And three quarters of the buy-to-let mortgages being sold are at least a year behind on payments.

It’s not yet known how much the US fund purchased them for, but it will be considerably less than their €1.6billion nominal value. Sinn Féin Finance spokesman Pearse Doherty described the sale as ‘completely unacceptable’.

‘Ulster Bank confirmed today that they do not really care about their customers in difficulty as they announced the sale of thousands of family homes and buy-to-lets to vulture funds, thus outsourcing evictions.’

But Central Bank deputy governor Ed Sibley said earlier this week there is ‘absolutely no evidence’ overseas buyers of Irish loan portfolios are acting more aggressively on mortgage-holders in arrears than mainstream banks.