Maples Group

The Irish legislature is considering draft legislation which would regulate purchasers of non-performing loans (NPLs). The draft legislation is at an advanced stage in the parliamentary process. While credit servicers are regulated in Ireland, credit owners (in the main, entities that have purchased loans and loan portfolios from banks looking to reduce their exposure to NPLs) are not. However, the regulation of owners of credit would be a substantial extension of the regime. Furthermore, it would run contrary to EU policy in this area which proposes to regulate credit servicers (as is the existing position in Ireland) but deliberately stops short of regulating loan owners because such an extension is neither necessary nor desirable.

The Irish Court of Appeal recently handed down an important decision which will impact default interest provisions in Irish law loan agreements. In Sheehan v Breccia/Flynn and Benray v Breccia, the court considered whether a provision for default interest in a bank's standard terms and conditions should be struck down as a penalty. This is a highly technical question, but one which is important for banks and borrowers, and for other market operators.

The settlement of a recent financial services regulatory enforcement action by the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) highlights the interconnectedness of regulatory breaches. In brief, a failure of controls and policies can create a domino effect which triggers liabilities under the anti-money laundering/counter terrorist financing (AML/CTF) regime, client asset requirements and a finding that key frontline personnel are not fit and proper for their role.