Figure represents approximately 5% of total mortgages in Ireland
Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) CEO Brian Hayes today said: “Over 45,000 mortgage payment breaks have now been granted or are close to completion since the cross-bank initiative was introduced by Ireland’s five retail banks.” The BPFI CEO said the figure represents approximately 5% of all mortgages in Ireland.
Mr. Hayes said: Close to 14,000 SME payment breaks were granted or in the process of being granted over the past three weeks, while banks were also well advanced in processing requests for working capital facilities, which total 3,200 to date. Banks are experiencing a far greater demand by SMEs for payment breaks, which account for 65% of the overall demand in supports, while working capital facilities account for just 35% of the requests received from SMEs.”
Coming on the increase in the figures, Mr. Hayes said: “These figures indicate the scale of the financial impact of Covid-19 on both individuals and businesses and the swiftness with which banks have moved to prioritise those who most need financial support at this challenging time”.
“Substantial changes across a whole range of the banks’ operational systems have been necessary in order to process the thousands of payment break applications which have been received, and which banks will continue to receive as customers seek support as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic”.
The BPFI CEO said: “Banks have been reallocating up to 50% of their staff in some cases to ensure delivery of the payment breaks, while thousands of call centre personnel, IT, credit, risk and operations teams have all been involved in the changes that have been required to manage and deliver on the thousands of applications and queries they have been receiving.”
