The ability to sell loans to a third party is governed by the original contract between the lender and the customer and I do not have the data requested by the Deputy in respect of individual banks.
If a borrower has a difficulty with interpretation by a particular lender, I should point out that the Financial Services Ombudsman can investigate complaints from individual consumers about the actions of hire purchase firms and I would urge a customer who may have a complaint about such a firm to make a complaint to the FSO if the issue cannot be resolved with the firm concerned.
I understand from the Central Bank that the impairment of any exposure on a Bank’s balance sheet is governed by the relevant accounting standard. The Central Bank of Ireland issued guidelines in 2013, entitled ‘The Central Bank of Ireland Impairment Provisioning and Disclosure Guidelines’ which cover regulatory expectations regarding the policies, procedures and disclosures which the State supported Covered Institutions should adopt for loans and receivables financial assets (and held to maturity financial assets, where applicable) that are subject to impairment review in accordance with the requirements of International Accounting Standard 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement (“IAS 39”).
It is also important to highlight that the transfer of a loan from one entity to another does not change the terms of the contract or the borrower's rights and obligations under the original contract.
