KBC Bank is hoping to double its number of mortgage customers in Ireland over the next three to five years.
The Belgian bank, who are opening six branches here in the months ahead, hope to have a mortgage book of 250,000 customers by 2017.
KBC were the fifth-biggest lender in the boom years with a loan book of €13 billion and currently offer a standard variable rate mortgage of 4.25%.
Meanwhile, the head of KBC Bank Ireland has said that mortgage arrears here had dropped for the first time in five years during October and November, although the decline was small.
"We expect things to moderate in 2013 and we're looking forward then in ‘14 and '15 to reverting to substantial profitability as a business," John Reynolds said at the opening of the bank’s new branch in Baggot Street in Dublin.
