LoansBorrowers behind more than 65,000 mortgages and 22,000 small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME) loans have already availed of the relief since it was first announced in the middle of last month. That equates to about 8 per cent of both all mortgages and SME loans in the country. Accounting rules during the last crisis largely prevented banks from setting aside bad debt provisions until loans had actually soured. This allows banks to avoid classifying loans with temporary payment breaks as higher risk debt that banks would ordinarily have to start making provisions against. Unlike the last crisis, Irish banks have much higher levels of capital to absorb shock losses.

Source: The Irish Times May 01, 2020 14:59 UTC