Sean Sherlock
Is the MHC report in the public domain? And could it be?
UB: No it's not.
Gerry Horkan:
I would like to know the breakdown of real estate vs. non real estate. In the UK, there is hundreds of millions of compensation. but there is no similar process in Ireland.
UB: We are going through the same process in Ireland. They will be compensated.
We will look at the issues of complex fees being charged
GH
But what about viable businesses who lost their business through real estate problems.
UB: We have to investigate each case separately. But it's hard to disentangle real estate from business problems. For example, a retail company that borrowed heavily to buy their premises.
Many were sold to vulture funds and have survived, but we don't have that data.
Rose Conway Walsh
But MHC only interviewed 5 .
UB: We asked them to conduct the review. They chose the people to talk to. We didn't. There was no evidence that we artificially distressed businesses.
Kieran ODonnell : When do you expect the review to be completed?
Blair: probably next year. But wedon't know.
O'D: Are you interacting with the borrowers?
Blair: Not, but we will be be - probably in Q1 next year.
O'Donnell: Was there a separate GRG for Ireland.
Blair: There was a person in Ireland responsible for the whole of Ireland who reported to the head of the GRG and the head of UB Ireland.
O'Donnell : Has the CB interacted with you on this matter
Blair: Yes. We keep them informed.
ODonnell: have they done any review themselves similar to the FCA
Blair: No.
O'Donnell: How did the CBI get involved.
Blair: We notified them of our review
O'Donnell: Did you sell 90% of these to vulutre funds, If so it wasn't really a restructuring group. That was a misnomer.
Blair: The GRG existed long before the financial crisis and still exists today.
O'Donnell : Did you sell some of these loans to Goldman Sachs
Blair: Yes,
O'Donnell: We are getting calls from people who are under huge pressrue from GS
Blair: The context is the massive decline in the economy where many businesses couldn't recover. We did not sell any loans to NAMA but we had to get rid of non performing loans, so that we could focus on building a good business for our staff and our customers.