The Irish parliament is debating a bill which, if passed, would regulate the owners of Irish loan portfolios. The proposed legislation – the Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) [Amendment] Bill 2018 (the Bill) is understood to have been triggered by reports of intended loan sales by particular retail banks in Ireland. Since 2015, non-regulated owners of loan portfolios comprising loans to consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been required to appoint a regulated credit servicer to manage the portfolio. This was to ensure that consumers and SMEs would continue to enjoy their statutory customer protection even though their creditor was unregulated. Broadly, this ensured consumers and SMEs were in the same position as if facing a regulated retail bank. However, in some political circles this regime has been perceived as providing insufficient protection to borrowers.
The Irish Central Bank (CBI), in common with other EU regulators, will be focused in 2018 on intensified supervision of anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist finance compliance, data protection, and ensuring banks and other regulated institutions have robust cyber security systems. However, in Ireland another area is emerging. This is the question of individual responsibility for increased regulatory scrutiny by directors and senior managers for regulatory breaches by their institution.
The Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) regulates the banking and finance industries in Ireland. It has a broad range of investigative powers to allow it to perform its supervisory and regulatory functions. These include the power to enter into and search premises, take copies of documents and obtain information in other ways. The legislation protects the right to legal professional privilege (LPP) enjoyed by a person who is the subject of the exercise of those powers. However, the legislation is otherwise generally silent on issues such as the right to privacy of personal information. The interaction of regulatory powers with the right to privacy in our digital age has been the subject of much discussion recently in Ireland.
In 2014 the Irish parliament passed the Merchant Shipping (Registration of Ships) Act 2014 (the Act) to update the regime for the registration of Irish ships and the regime for registering mortgages over ships. It is intended that the new regime will provide a more efficient, user friendly and accessible regime for commercial ship owners and those involved in financing the construction and purchase of vessels. Among other things the Act provides for the establishment of an electronic ship ownership and mortgage register. It preserves all of the basic protections under the existing regime for banks which have a mortgage over commercial ships. With the exception of one provision, however, the Act has not yet been commenced. Given the potential for the further development of shipping finance in Ireland, it is hoped that the government will soon implement it.
