Certus, the banking services firm set up by former Bank of Scotland (Ireland) managers, has won a contract from Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) to help the bank collect debts on the €1.8 billion residential mortgage book of the former Irish Nationwide Building Society.
IBRC, formerly Anglo Irish Bank, is hiring 10 collection agents from Certus to recover debts on the loan book that the State-owned bank has described as “Ireland’s answer to subprime”.
The half-year accounts for IBRC showed that €800 million – or 45 per cent – of the former Irish Nationwide mortgage book was impaired, while 65 per cent of the loans were classified as “at risk”. Arrears on the book, comprising €1.4 million of owner-occupier mortgages and €400 million of buy-to-let mortgages originated by the lender formerly managed by Michael Fingleton, are well in excess of the industry average.
Certus, which is led by chief executive Joe Higgins, has a contract with AIB to assist on mortgage arrears cases and is winding down the former €29 billion BoSI loan book for UK bank Lloyds.
The company is managing €400 million of Irish commercial property loans for Californian property firm Kennedy Wilson and Deutsche Bank, which acquired them from Lloyds. Certus had no comment on the IBRC contract.
