Central Bank must avoid quick-fix mortgage solutions

The bankers’ parade continued last week, as yet more bank bosses went before the Oireachtas joint committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform. One of the key issues under discussion was the Central Bank proposal to restrict mortgage lending.

Ulster Bank told the committee that the bulk of its mortgages to first-time buyers this year – some 68 per cent – would have fallen outside the new loan-to-value and income thresholds that the ...