Banks don’t offer ‘solultions’ they just say ‘no’

Something that people find really frustrating is how they look to a bank for a solution and are simply told ‘no’, there is never any mention of ‘what will work’. Imagine going into a negotiation where you have no idea of what is acceptable to the other party (short of full repayment), or even where full repayment can get rejected!

How are you meant to find any answer -given that all solutions are unknown and unknowable – if there is not at lease some kind of counter offer? Imagine doing this in any other area of your life…

You: I’d like to buy these shoes, how much are they? Shopkeeper: That depends. You: I’d be happy to pay €50 for them, will that work? Shopkeeper: No. You: What will you accept? Shopkeeper: That really depends. You: Do you want more or less or am I even in the right ballpark? Shopkeeper: Hard to say, it really depends…

(then go back to third sentence of conversation and LOOP UNTIL runtime error)

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A strange contradiction, making a problem then complaining about it…

At the Central Bank conference on distressed property markets yesterday there was an excellent line up of speakers, the event was launched by the Governor who said that ‘Household financial distress is at unprecedented levels in Ireland as can be seen, for example, from the extraordinary rates of arrears on the servicing even of mortgages secured on owner-occupied homes‘.

That line is the one that made headlines, it was designed (intentionally or not) to make a point which various regulators keep making – that banks are not dealing with this problem.

So all we get from this is that mortgage arrears have miraculously gone to ‘extraordinary levels’ somehow and somebody needs to fix that… The justified rage being that we pre-capitalized the banks (recapitalizing would have necessitated the capital being used first not held to the bitter end) to the tune of €64bn.

Matthew Elderfield said it in March of last year, ‘time to face up to reality’. This was echoed in a talk given to the …

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