ASSET DISCOUNTS:NAMA HAS applied a substantially higher discount to assets it bought from banks than had been envisaged when the agency was established.
The first tranche of loans to be transferred to the new agency has had an average discount of 47 per cent applied, compared to the average of 30 per cent suggested last September.
Nama chairman Frank Daly said the agency had taken a “hard-nosed, commercial approach” with the banks.
Nama chief executive Brendan McDonagh said he did not think anyone expected the agency to apply the discounts it had.
He and Mr Daly said the agency would be taking a similar attitude with borrowers. Borrowers had an opportunity for a new start with Nama, but if they were found not to be making full disclosures “then we take you out of the picture”, Mr McDonagh said.
The loans already taken into Nama or to be taken in over the coming weeks represent loans linked to the top 10 borrowers in the State. The book value of the loans is €16 billion, and the price paid will be €8.5 billion.
The discounts varied greatly between the institutions involved, reflecting the quality of the bank assets. A further €1 billion in loans associated with the top 10 but about which there were difficulties with security were to be allocated a value of zero by Nama.
The banks have been given another month to see if they can strengthen the security and improve the value of those loans.
Mr McDonagh said it would not be possible on the basis of the loans already valued to estimate what average discount would be applied to the remainder of the €81 billion in total bank assets it is envisaged will eventually be moved to Nama.
The book values of the loans acquired and the average discounts for each institution are:
AIB, €3.29 billion (43%);
Anglo Irish Bank, €10 billion (50%);
Bank of Ireland, €1.93 billion, (35%);
Irish Nationwide, €670 million (58%);
EBS, €140 million (37%).
Mr McDonagh pointed out that the price paid for all the loans (€8.51 billion) was lower than the market value of the loans in October 2009 (€9.44 billion).
Mr Daly said the “rather nebulous” hold banks had on certain securities had come as a surprise.
Mr McDonagh said the security issues included a recent high-profile case involving difficulties with securities on loans totalling half a billion euro.
This is understood to be a reference to a court case involving AIB and Liam Carroll.
There were difficulties with other lenders too, and he mentioned loans to couples where only one name appeared on the mortgage.
Some of the loans transferred concern land without planning permission, on which discounts of 90 per cent were applied.
Mr McDonagh said the difference between the 2009 estimate and the discount now being applied arose from what the banks said in 2009 and what Nama’s due diligence had determined.
He was asked to comment on the banks’ lax security and the gulf between what the banks had assumed last year and what due diligence had disclosed.
He said he believed “there was such an explosion in growth in the balance sheets of the banks, based on property lending between 2004 and 2008, that I think all the good banking and lending principles went out the window . . .
“I’d say the level of due diligence did not reach what was good banking requirements. We can’t do anything about that. That’s a problem they created for themselves. We are not part of that.
“We are part of taking over the loans at a realistic value, and going forward.”