This post is a brief account of the residential mortgage providers in the Irish mortgage market, a brief look at who they are and what kind of lending they are involved in. Many people have no idea who is who, or who owns who so this should help to clarify some of that. Of course, as a broker we can help guide you through the myriad of lenders and options, but even our expertise is not an adequate replacement

The list of lenders in residential mortgages are (in no particular order)

1. IIB Homeloans
2. Haven
3. PTsb
4. First Active
5. EBS
6. Irish Nationwide
7. ACC Bank
8. Bank of Ireland
9. Springboard
10. Start Mortgages
11. Nua Homeloans
12. GE Money
13. Leeds Building Society
14. Bank of Scotland
15. ICS
16. NIB
17. Ulsterbank
18. AIB

Who they are and what kind of lending do they do?

1. IIB Homeloans: This is ‘Irish Intercontinental Bank’ and they were once owned by Irish Life, they then got bought out by KBC. So who owns IIB now? KBC do, they are a good firm and KBC have had virtually no exposure to sub-prime loans, IIB did have a firm called ‘Stepstone‘ who were a subprime lender but they were closed shortly after starting. IIB are 95% broker channel with a small direct sales side. This means that almost all of their business is placed via brokers. The important thing to realise here is that they have about 12.5% of the residential mortgage market, if you didn’t use a broker you likely didn’t use them because they mostly deal only with broker loans. It re-enforces our belief that you have to talk to a broker to get independent advice.

2. Haven Mortgages: Haven is a broker only channel that is a subsidiary of the EBS, it was launched in 2007 and it is quickly gaining market share, their proposition is not identical to the EBS and access to their loans is exclusively through brokers. Haven is based away from the EBS (it’s located on Amien’s St.) and it operates as a seperate entity. They are quickly proving to be an innovative leader and the additional competition within the market is welcome. Currently however they have been raising their rates because (as is the case with most lenders) of the interbank markets, in addition, they source their money via the EBS so one concern for a broker only channel is whether or not they will be able to remain competitive with the EBS.

3. PTsb/Permanent TSB: This banks was formed when the building society Irish Permanent amalgamated with TSB (Trustee Savings Bank) later this new institution merged with Irish Life to become IL&P (Irish Life & Permanent), so PTsb is the banking wing of the Irish Life group. They are a massive lender who command almost a quarter of the residential mortgage market. They have been aided in their growth by strong support from the intermediary channel upon which they rely heavily. The share price of the Irish Life & Permanent group has been highlighted recently for poor performance but the actual company itself remains a market leader.

4. First Active: This was initially a building society that later got listed as a public company in 1998 and was later bought by RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) in 2004. First Active had a strong history of home loans and although they have banking and savings facilities their penetration in that market is minimal. Their current host of rates are considered to be amongst the most expensive in the market and they have been the first to re-introduce certain types of mortgage fees.

5. EBS (Educational Building Society): This is Ireland largest building society, having said that building societies are thin on the ground as most have graduated up to fully fledged banks. They have branches and franchises, the franchises look and feel like any other EBS but they are owned by a franchisee. As the EBS is not a bank it doesn’t offer current accounts, but it does have ATM’s via AIB and credit cards via MBNA. Their investments are tied to Irish Life. In 2007 they launched a broker only channel called ‘Haven’. Traditionally EBS were known as a ‘first time buyers’ bank however, they have left that moniker behind and are known

6. Irish Nationwide Building Society: This firm is one of the smaller players on the market, historically their rates are also amongst the highest in the market, for this reason they are often seen as a lender of last resort in the mortgage market. Having said that, Irish Nationwide continue to remain profitable in the market and they seem to have escaped the sub-prime debacle, they also have a range of attractive deposit products.

7. ACC Bank (Agricultural Credit Corporation): Is primarily a commercial bank which focuses on agriculture and SME firms, typically when you wanted to borrow to buy land for farming ACC were the only lender who would look at this, they hold a strong niche in that respect. In 2002 Rabobank bought ACC and they are now a fully owned subsidiary. There are about 40 branches of ACC bank in Ireland, the firms focus going forward is to move into the business banking sector. If RaboBank decide to pursue a residential lending arm to their business then it is likely that ACC will be the conduit for this.

8. Bank of Ireland: BOI shares have taken one of the most severe hits in recent months, formed in 1783 Bank of Ireland is the oldest bank in Ireland. Bank of Ireland offer a full range of financial services, from credit cards to mortgages, they have an extensive branch system and they are a major lender in the residential market and they have exceptional market share in the commercial property section. Bank of Ireland are not generally dealt with via brokers because they never developed that channel fully, instead they worked on developing their subsidiary ICS into a broker channel for the group.

9. Springboard Mortgages: This was a joint venture by Merrill Lynch and PTsb which focuses on specialist or sub-prime loans. The Irish market saw a swath of entrants into the lending market from 2004 including firms such as Fresh (no longer operating) and Stepstone (no longer operating). Springboard is almost exclusively a broker only channel. Merrill Lynch removed themselves from the JV in mid 2008 and Springboard is now a fully owned subsidiary of PTsb. The exact details of the move were not disclosed. Springboard continue to offer specialist loans and they are amongst the remaining four players in the specialist market.

10. Start Mortgages: Despite being the second entrant to the market Start Mortgages actually took the largest market share in Ireland after commencing operations here, at the time they arrived the only lender offering specialist loans was GE. Start were owned by Kensington in the UK and later the group was sold to Investec. Start is an innovative lender and they championed many concepts in the Irish mortgage market, however, as is the case with all lenders, the crunch has resulted in a slowdown in lending levels.

11. Nua Homeloans: This is one of the newest players on the Irish mortgage market and they are also owned by Investec. Investec now have two players in the Irish subprime market so there is a belief among many that we will see either a sale of one of the banks or perhaps a consolidation or rebranding of both firms into one. In the interim Nua are gaining market share, they have embraced an electronic platform which makes dealing with them exceptionally easy, they are amongst the front runners in the Irish market to have achieved this.

12. GE Money: GE were the original sub-prime lender in Ireland, they entered the market back in 2003 with their first proposition. At the time they were basically consolidating ‘near prime’ loans and for this reason they left the niche open which gave Start Mortgages the opportunity they took when they entered the market. GE have since made aggressive inroads into the market on several fronts from mortgages for people with bad debt to personal loans and car finance (they had been in personal loans and finance all along). GE is one of the worlds largest companies and they are active in almost ever facet of business known.

13. Leeds Building Society: Leeds is the newest entrant on the market and they are a British Building Society (7th largest in the UK) and they came to market with a tracker/LTV proposal financing properties with a ‘one size fits all’ tracker for properties of 80% or less LTV. They operate on multiples which limits their ability to lend to many highly geared Irish properties however, their market share was impressive in their first two years of operation and they are a welcome competitor to the market. Their rates are hugely attractive at present as they offer trackers at ECB + 1.45% in a market where everybody else seems to be pushing for margins of 2%.

14. Bank of Scotland Ireland (BOSI): This is a firm that was brought to Ireland by brokers, they introduced tracker mortgages, and in essence it was BOSI who shook the market up, most of the public don’t really think about the fact that BOSI was a broker only bank that introduced Trackers to the Irish market, trackers are the most transparent and best value long term loans available, other banks soon followed suit and copied the BOSI proposal. Recently the firm has had difficulties because their mother company HBOS is having issues, they also started a retail only channel in Ireland Halifax, the move to retail has not proved as successful as they had hoped for and brokerage still accounts for most of their business.

15. ICS (Irish Civil Service) Building Society: This was once a state owned lender exclusively for use by civil servants, it was later sold to Bank of Ireland and it is a wholly owned subsidiary, they distribute mortgages almost exclusively through brokers and they tend to have a product offering that is slightly better (historically) than BOI, their direct sales branches are branded as ‘The Mortgage Store’ however, clients entering their premises can only be offered an ICS loan, on the life front they would be able to broker different products from institutions such as New Ireland or Eagle Star.

16. National Irish Bank (NIB): This is the southern version of ‘Northern Bank’ (of robbery fame). They were bought by Danske Bank in 2004 from National Australia Bank who had bought NIB in 1987. NIB are best known for polar opposite events, on one hand (long ago) they had helped clients open accounts under false names and evade tax, they overcharged customers, their ex-head of financial advice is barred from being a company director. However under Danske they have become known for positive reasons, namely their ‘LTV tracker’ which has been and remains one of the best value loans on the market. Mind you, their variable rate is amongst the worst in the market, but for the client who knows what they want and how to spot value their LTV tracker is unmatched. In a nutshell NIB can’t be touched by any other lender when it comes to trackers, the main gripe brokers have with them is that we can’t place loans with them!

17. Ulsterbank: This bank is owned by RBS and like its sister firm First Active their rates are amongst the most expensive in the market. They had a broker proposition and then in 2008 with minimal notification they informed the market (by email) that they would pursue a ‘branch only’ model, they had a competitive offering from 2004-2006 but since that time their loans have not been popular within the intermediary channel.

18. Allied Irish Bank (AIB): AIB has the largest branch network in the country, only BOI is near them, they are one of the ‘Big Four’ in banking in Ireland. They offer insurances via Ark Life and they are involved in every major facet of banking, from commercial lending to residential. On the residential front their primary distribution is via their branches, AIB do deal with brokers, it used to be via a channel called AIF (Allied Irish Finance & Leasing) but this was merged with the main group in 2005. The bank was only formed in 1966 by the purchase and merger of three other banks. Poland is a large area of AIB’s operations in the new millennium. Their lending policy is considered by many to be ‘profile’ based rather than strictly ‘underwriting’ based, and for that reason they are not the lender of choice for many cases, but for the type of business they do want they are a lender who demonstrates total flexibility and service.

That is a basic run down of the mortgage providers in the Irish market. No broker can really claim to have agencies with ‘all of them’ for residential lending. If you have any questions about this or any of the posts you see here be sure to call us! 01 6790990