New legislation will increase protection for mortgage holders – Doherty

Fine Gael TD for Meath East, Regina Doherty, said today (Friday) that legislation to protect consumers whose mortgages are sold to unregulated entities will provide certainty and protection to mortgage-holders.

“The Government intends to publish legislation to protect consumers whose mortgages are sold to unregulated entities before the end of this year. This will rectify the unacceptable situation where mortgages are sold to entities not regulated by the Central Bank.

“The Department of Finance has sought the views of the public on this issue and I welcome the fact that the outcome of this consultation will be new legislation to protect mortgage holders.

“This became a serious issue earlier this year when former Irish Nationwide mortgages were sold to an unregulated entity and therefore offering little protection to borrowers.

“The latest Central Bank figures show that the number of mortgage accounts in arrears fell for the fourth consecutive quarter at the end of June 2014. However, these numbers are still too high and I urge the Government to intensify efforts to deal with the mortgage arrears problem.”