Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 July 2014
189. Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly asked the Minister for Finance further to the announcement by Bank of Ireland, a bank in which he controls 14% of the shares, that it has disposed of €250 million of par value mortgages presently controlled by the ICS Building Society, if there has been a waiver by the European Commission to the requirement set out in its restructuring decision for that bank; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29475/14]
View answerIn accordance with its revised Restructuring Plan of July 2013, which allowed it to retain New Ireland, Bank of Ireland agreed to certain substitution measures including that relating to ICS. The specific ICS substitution measure required Bank of Ireland to sell the ICS distribution platform together with, at the option of the acquirer: Up to €1bn of mortgages; and Up to €1bn of matching deposits.
In accordance with the revised Restructuring Plan, Bank of Ireland had until 30th June 2014 to execute this transaction. As the Deputy is aware, Bank of Ireland made an announcement to the stock exchange on 26th June in this regard. The substance of this announcement was that Bank of Ireland had agreed to sell the ICS distribution platform together with a portfolio of €250m gross performing mortgage assets to Dilosk Limited. The full announcement can be found at: http://www.bankofireland.com/fs/doc/wysiwyg/eu-restructuring-plan-update-26-june-2014.pdf. The EU Commission had not granted a waiver to the Bank of Ireland in relation to its ICS commitment and the transaction announced on 26th June is in line with this commitment.
