Central Bank of Ireland Investigations

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 February 2017

Thursday, 23 February 2017

Ceisteanna (157)

Michael McGrath

Ceist:

157. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide a breakdown of the 289 firms found to be unauthorised by the Central Bank regarding the services they provided; if they were financial services providers, collective investment schemes, payment services agents, moneylenders or any other service; if any of the firms were credit-servicing firms; if any of the firms own or owned mortgage loans or credit agreements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9517/17]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Finance

I am informed by the Central Bank that during the period 1 August 1998 to 31 July 2013, the names of 217 firms were published by the Central Bank of Ireland. The majority of these firms were providing investment services defined under the Investment Intermediaries Act 1995 or investment services as defined in the European Communities (Markets in Financial Instruments) Regulations.

Since 1 August 2013, a further 72 names of firms or individuals has been published by the Central Bank of Ireland. The breakdown of the categories of these 72 firms is as follows:

Categories of Firms	No.
Unauthorised Investment Firms	54
Unauthorised Retail Credit Firms	6
Unauthorised Credit Institution or Banking Business	6
Unauthorised Debt Management Firms	3
Unauthorised Insurance Intermediaries	2
Unauthorised Mortgage Intermediary	1

None of these firms was a Credit Servicing Firm.

A complete list of warning notices published by the Central Bank of Ireland since 1998 is available on the Bank's website at the following link:

http://www.centralbank.ie/regulation/unauthorised-firms/Pages/list-search-unath.aspx.