Leeds Building Society is "reviewing its future in Ireland"

The Sunday Times reports that Leeds Building Society is reviewing its future in Ireland. Article here (paywall, free reg required to read).

Nothing firm in the article but the Brexit options for Leeds seem to be:
1. Exit Ireland. (Not as simple as Nationwide ... who will Leeds sell their mortgages to?)
2. Register as a bank in Ireland. (Hardly worth it given their small scale, their wind-down mode and Brexit time is ticking if they want to do this as registration is a lenghty process).
3. Sit on their hand and wait to see if a transitional agreement is put in place for passporting. (Seems very risky and even if it happens it would probably be short term).

Nationwide UK (Ireland), Leeds Building Society (Ireland) and Investec (Ireland branch) are all structured as branches of a UK parent and take advantage of passporting rules that are unlikely to exist post Brexit.

Plans for Leeds surely need to be in place sooner rather than later because wind-downs or the set up new banking licenses would take time.

Hello CiaranT,

I don't think anyone would be surprised to see them withdraw from the Irish market tbh.

As for who might buy their Irish mortgage book (which I am guessing, is very small...well, in mortgage book terms), perhaps the likes of Pepper, Dilosk ("ICS") or KBC perhaps.

Obviously, the quality of the loan book would influence whether it can be sold to another lender, or if it's more likely to be sold to a fund, but assuming it's in reasonable condition then I'd expect it could be sold quite easily given I imagine it to be quite small so would not cost a lot.

Obviously, there is also the potential scenario that they might retain the loan book and just run it down over time, appointing the likes of Capita or Pepper to manage it for them (although personally, I would anticipate a sale of the loan book myself).

I believe the Leeds mortgages were on tracker rates (albeit not anywhere near as cheap as other lenders once provided).

Those with mortgages from Leeds BS could do worse than explore the possibility of refinancing, as there may be opportunities to negotiate a discount with Leeds in the weeks and months ahead, if you are in a position to refinance.

Agreed. I think the Leeds mortgage book is around 140 million euro. Most of the mortgages were opened around 2006/7. A significant portion of the loans are non performing.

Slightly off topic but has Leeds paid out for their fixed deposits yet? Am I right in saying that it was set for the end of last month? Might wait for that to come in and move the funds over to KBC with their 35 day notice account.

Many years ago, Leeds Building Society (Ireland) offered several different term deposit products with set maturity dates that varied depending on the product issue number. I would suspect that they have all paid out by now.

Leeds Building Society (Ireland) seem to move matured term deposits into a Maturity Access Account that pays 0.50% AER variable.

Sorry that's what I meant. I'm in freedom 30.

Why are you moving the money from Leeds Freedom 30 (Issue 3?) to KBC 35 Day Notice Account? Both accounts pay 0.65% AER variable and have similar notice periods.