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Farm and agri-loans will not be included in a sale of up to 5,200 non-performing mortgages and loans, an Ulster Bank spokesperson has confirmed to the Irish Farmers Journal.
The loans will be sold by the bank with an estimated portfolio value of €1.4bn to so-called US vulture fund Cerberus.
In the last loan sale in 2016, about 4% were farmers
The loans will be made up of up to 2,300 mortgages related to home loans and 2,900 mortgages covering buy-to-let properties.
Fianna Fáil spokesperson for finance Michael McGrath has condemned the move by Ulster Bank.
"Having seen the way Cerberus treats many of the commercial borrowers whose loans it bought through the various Promontoria vehicles, it is hard to see many of these mortgage holders managing to successfully negotiate a restructuring solution with them," McGrath said.
Previous farm sale
Ulster Bank previously sold a portfolio that included farm loans to so-called vulture fund Cerberus.
“We engaged extensively at the time of the Oyster sale with farm organisations,” Ailish Byrne of Ulster Bank told an Oireachtas Committee earlier in the year.
“Our obvious preference is to work with customers. Ulster was not part of NAMA and we have had to balance the books. In the last loan sale in 2016, about 4% were farmers.”
A number of farmers have contacted the Irish Farmers Journal to report upset at their treatment at the hands of the vulture fund and their agent Link Asset Services.
Farmers report that the vulture fund is unreasonable to deal with and refuses to accept reasonable attempts to restructure debt.
Permanent TSB
The news of the latest vulture fund sale comes almost two weeks after Permanent TSB announced it would be selling a loan portfolio that included nine farm loans to the vulture fund Lone Star.
The IFA estimates that up to 2,500 farmers are affected by vulture fund ownership of their mortgages and have asked auctioneers not to become invovled in the forced sale of farmland.
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