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GOVERNMENT HAS MOVED to close a legal loophole which resulted in thousands of people whose mortgages were sold to vulture funds having no access to the State’s financial ombudsman service.
In February, in a heated exchange between Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty and the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank Derville Rowland, she confirmed that a “gap” existed which meant some homeowners whose loans are with vulture funds did not have the same rights and protections as others.
It resulted in complaints over disputes regarding the handling of loans not being dealt with by the ombudsman with mortgage-holders left in limbo as to what course of action to take.
The issue related to complaints from a time before the credit servicers, who act for the funds, were registered with the Central Bank.
Credit servicers were only required to be registered with the Central Bank since 2019 after earlier legislation was introduced.
The Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (FSPO) is an independent and free service that helps resolve complaints from consumers with financial institutions.
Finance Minister Jack Chambers yesterday received government approval for a Committee stage amendment to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023.
This proposed amendment, which was drafted following advice from the Attorney General and consultation with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel (OPC) and the ombudsman, seeks to close the legal gap.
A government spokesperson said: “It is important that all residential mortgage holders can avail of consumer protections, including being able to bring a complaint to the FSPO, no matter what the background of their mortgage is or whether their provider was previously unregulated.”
In a statement to The Journal, Doherty said the legal loophole, which he highlighted in February, meant that even if there was wrongdoing or a mortgage holder was mistreated, the ombudsman could not investigate the complaint or require the vulture fund to pay compensation to the consumer for misconduct.
“This is a basic right which every consumer and mortgage holder should have. Access to the Financial Ombudsman is a key part of the consumer protection framework,” he said.
“For years government ministers have claimed that mortgage holders who had their loans sold to vulture funds would keep all and lose none of the consumer protections that they had when their loans were held by retail banks.
“That was not true. In February I made clear to the government that this loophole must be closed.
“I look forward to scrutinising the legislation to ensure that it achieves what I raised in February,” he said.
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I understand responsibility but what michael nonnan and ffg did by created legislation to allow vulture thifs to own our children’s future is unfortunately part of ffg dna
@Robert Halvey: Noonan is a traitor to the people of Ireland
@Magnificent Mongoose: I agree with you I am a limerick person and back in the day when nonnan was minister for justice he signed off on 3 men for early realise from prison, who had gang raped a girl set fire to the girls hair and used a piece of stick no wonder why the wall street press named him as the best minster of finance, ps I am paraphrasing
@Robert Halvey: it was absolutely criminal and should never have been allowed, not to mention they dont pay a penny in tax and the Irish taxpayer pays nearly a billion euro a year in HAP. a lot of it to these funds. Its crazy
@William Slevin: Accusations of “treason” are something I’m more used to hearing from English people. Also, how come you don’t know who any of our politicians are? Which of them do you imagine was elected “by foreign interests”? What’s “foreign” to you? Where are you from, yourself?
That decision by noonan to give vulture funds carte Blanche was a disaster for this country…..it’s his legacy and it’s shameful……
@David Cotter: He, and FG, has form in abuse of the people.
Particularly the most vulnerable.
The way he treated the victims of the Hepatitis C scandal was despicable.
Completely unintentional I’m sure that these loopholes existed *sarcasm*
@Jessie Pinkman: there are frequent calls for more time to scrutinise legislation yet no TDs spotted these “loopholes” that are now costing us dearly.
@Spanner: TDs are not the people to scrutinise laws to that level.
When is anyone going to do something about:
Rent only apartments built on former Nama owned lands.
So we bailed them out and then they rent the apartments back to us forever.
My gripe on this is it removes the opportunity to have a starter home breaking the home ownership chance for so many who want to own their own place.
I genuinely cannot understand how Pierce and Co don’t pull government up on this farcical mess another one by FFG..
@Vinny Hughes: Well the lands only became Nama lands when they were taken over by Nama, developers/banks owned them before that and were bought for, on average 50% of ” book value ” , then Nama sold them to new developers who in the main raised finance in the private equity market as our banks aren’t in the commercial property lending business anymore.
Cairns for example is a quoted company and keeps back many apartments to let out, and they pay interest on the debt they took on to build , it’s a different model since the crash,
Pearse Doherty seem to fight for the decent reason. I know it’s all PR, but many in sunn feinn should take example, especially at the top
A legal loophole deliberately left there by design, this was not by accident. Banks, Vulture Funds, Developers, Barristers, Judiciary, Legal system & Politicians all part of the Golden Circle in Ireland, one of the most hidden corrupt countries in Europe.
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