The Central Bank has published an analysis of payment breaks taken by mortgage holders and firms which shows the overwhelming majority of borrowers had no problem servicing their loans prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The analysis of payment breaks on mortgages is based on data at the end of May from the five main banks. At that stage, there were 67,000 payment breaks covering €9.5 billion in loan balances which represented 9.7% of private dwelling homes (PDH).
According to the Central Bank's own internal estimates, just over half of these breaks remained in place at the end of last month.
Mortgage accounts which already had a history of forbearance before Covid were twice as likely to have a payment break, the Central Bank found.