Bank of Scotland has confirmed to RTE News that it has begun to restructure debts owed by buy-to-let borrowers in Ireland in exceptional circumstances.
Bank of Scotland has confirmed to RTE News that it has begun to restructure debts owed by buy-to-let borrowers in Ireland in exceptional circumstances.
The lender said it was still its policy to require customers to pay their debt in full, but added that it would work with customers to restructure their debt in bona fide cases.
Last year Bank of Scotland Ireland shut its branches, asked depositors to move savings and halted lending. After its lending spree, it became a victim of the crash and the bank withdrew from the Irish market.
RTÉ understands that in exceptional cases the lender is now writing off part of the capital owed by buy-to-let borrowers who clearly cannot repay loans. In these cases borrowers frequently have multiple buy-to-let properties in negative equity.
In a very small number of cases capital has been cut for owner occupiers after a forced sale has left an outstanding loan.
The lender's loans are being managed by 800 former Bank of Scotland Ireland staff who work for a new company called Certus.
Irish banks have been criticised for not facing up to loans which may never be re-paid. The significance of Bank of Scotland's development is that a lender is now willing to restructure mortgages.
KBC Bank raising fixed mortgage rates
KBC Bank is increasing the interest charged on its fixed-rate mortgages by up to 0.7 percentage points for new and existing customers. The move will see its five-year rate for new customers go up to 5.2%.
Existing customers who want to fix for five years will now be charged 5.5%, up from 5.2%.
The bank is leaving its standard variable rate unchanged at 3.85%.
The move from KBC follows standard variable rate increases announced last week by both Permanent TSB and Ulster Bank.
