Irish Banks Chase Defaulters Who Sleep Well at Night: Mortgages
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At the headquarters of Allied Irish Banks Plc in Dublin’s embassy belt, Chief Executive Officer David Duffy is taking aim at borrowers who refuse to repay their home loans.
Strategic defaulters, homeowners who can pay but won’t, account for 20 percent of Allied Irish’s home-loan arrears, the nation’s biggest mortgage lender said on Aug. 1. The bank is fighting back after the government, responding to surging loan delinquencies in the wake of Western Europe’s worst real-estate collapse, made home repossessions easier.