Ulster Bank has announced plans to sell off thousands of family home loans.
This afternoon the bank said it was selling a €900m portfolio containing 3,600 non-performing mortgages.
The bank said 90% of the loans relate to private and family homes – meaning 3,200 Irish homeowners are facing the prospect of seeing their mortgages sold to a separate fund.
Around 400 of the loans are buy-to-let mortgages.
In a statement, Ulster Bank said all the homeowners were “given every opportunity to agree a sustainable solution and to remain in a home that they can afford” before the loans were put up for sale.
It said it is obliged to reduce the level of non-performing loans on its balance sheet under EU regulations.
The banks said the private homeowners are an average of €33,000 behind on their mortgages.
They have spent an average of 58 months in arrears according to Ulster Bank figures.
