IBRC, formerly Anglo Irish Bank, is hiring 10 collection agents from Certus to recover debts on the loan book that the State-owned bank has described as “Ireland’s answer to subprime”.
The half-year accounts for IBRC showed that €800 million – or 45 per cent – of the former Irish Nationwide mortgage book was impaired, while 65 per cent of the loans were classified as “at risk”. Arrears on the book, comprising €1.4 million of owner-occupier mortgages and €400 million of buy-to-let mortgages originated by the lender formerly managed by Michael Fingleton, are well in excess of the industry average.
Certus, which is led by chief executive Joe Higgins, has a contract with AIB to assist on mortgage arrears cases and is winding down the former €29 billion BoSI loan book for UK bank Lloyds.
The company is managing €400 million of Irish commercial property loans for Californian property firm Kennedy Wilson and Deutsche Bank, which acquired them from Lloyds. Certus had no comment on the IBRC contract.
Source: Simon Carswell / Irish Times.
