Central Bank research shows that borrowers with mortgage arrears who engage early and meaningfully with their lenders get the best possible outcomes.  Face-to-face interviews with borrowers who had engaged with their lenders under the Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process (MARP) produced these key findings:

• 71% of borrowers surveyed had entered into an alternative arrangement with their lender as a result of MARP and 80% of those completing the Standard Financial Statement (SFS) entered a revised agreement.

• 71% of borrowers were positive about the ease of completing the SFS

• 73% of borrowers indicated that their lender had been professional in its dealing with them.

The Central Bank’s Director of Consumer Protection, Bernard Sheridan, states:
“It is encouraging to learn from our latest research that the borrowers surveyed believe that the overall MARP process is mostly working well from their perspective. I would therefore urge consumers facing or in mortgage arrears to contact their lender as soon as possible to discuss their situation and not to ignore attempts by lenders to engage with them.”

In our opinion the sample used in this research (209 people who had engaged with banks), is a little small and it doesn’t give any insight into the people who are disgruntled/not engaging due to lender experience. It’s good to see that such high numbers of any sample have a positive experience but there are still a lot of questions this survey doesn’t answer such as long term debt sustainable deals – because that is the point of the engagement, not to come away with a feeling of joy or sadness.