Brendan Burgess
Founder
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STATEMENT BY KEVIN HUMPHREYS
Labour Party TD, Dublin South East
Wednesday 6th June 2012
PERMANENT TSB CEO INVITED TO ATTEND FINANCE COMMITTEE FOLLOWING HUMPHREYS REQUEST
I welcome the decision today to invite the CEO of Permanent TSB, Jermey Masding, to appear before a meeting of the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform on the 18th July, to discuss the standard variable interest rates his bank is charging to mortgage customers.
This follows my written request last month to the Chair, Deputy Alex White, and I commend him on his on-going work in holding the state supported Irish banks to account.
Permanent TSB’s interest rates have been an on-going issue for some time due to the large increase in the SVR that has been passed onto mortgage holders. Some mortgage holders have seen their rates nearly double since 2009 whilst the ECB rate has declined in the same period from 1.5% to 1%. PTSB has over €22 billion of loss making tracker mortgages so it would appear it is using its SVR loan book to cover these loses.
Whilst a 0.5% rate reduction was recently passed onto SVR owner occupiers, other mortgage holders in PTSB have not seen their rates reduced.
It makes little sense that a state supported bank is charging such high interest rates that is making borrower repayments unviable, even when the mortgage holder is committed to repaying the loan.
It is a self-defeating exercise if in the process of trying to return to profit, the bank makes its non-tracker loan book unviable through high rates on outstanding mortgages, whilst using generous deposit interest rates to attract savers.
ENDS
Labour Party TD, Dublin South East
Wednesday 6th June 2012
PERMANENT TSB CEO INVITED TO ATTEND FINANCE COMMITTEE FOLLOWING HUMPHREYS REQUEST
I welcome the decision today to invite the CEO of Permanent TSB, Jermey Masding, to appear before a meeting of the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform on the 18th July, to discuss the standard variable interest rates his bank is charging to mortgage customers.
This follows my written request last month to the Chair, Deputy Alex White, and I commend him on his on-going work in holding the state supported Irish banks to account.
Permanent TSB’s interest rates have been an on-going issue for some time due to the large increase in the SVR that has been passed onto mortgage holders. Some mortgage holders have seen their rates nearly double since 2009 whilst the ECB rate has declined in the same period from 1.5% to 1%. PTSB has over €22 billion of loss making tracker mortgages so it would appear it is using its SVR loan book to cover these loses.
Whilst a 0.5% rate reduction was recently passed onto SVR owner occupiers, other mortgage holders in PTSB have not seen their rates reduced.
It makes little sense that a state supported bank is charging such high interest rates that is making borrower repayments unviable, even when the mortgage holder is committed to repaying the loan.
It is a self-defeating exercise if in the process of trying to return to profit, the bank makes its non-tracker loan book unviable through high rates on outstanding mortgages, whilst using generous deposit interest rates to attract savers.
ENDS