PREPARATIONS FOR the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) move a step forward today with the arrival of a deadline by which the six main lending institutions must set out an analysis of their development loan portfolios to officials working on the “bad bank” project.
Although the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) still has not seen drafts of the legislation under which Nama will be established, the scale and complexity of the task confronting the new organisation will become clearer when banks and building societies provide a detailed breakdown of their property loan exposures.
Dozens of bankers in large institutions such as Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks (AIB) are said to have been engaged in the process of collating and consolidating data on their biggest debtors in preparation for the transfer of loans whenever the new agency is established.
With loans valued at up to €90 billion to be transferred to Nama, the collation of up-to-date data on the current position of even the top 50 or 75 borrowers is likely to generate voluminous paperwork.
Today’s deadline, described by Government and NTMA sources as a flexible timetable for the provision of key information, comes ahead of an appearance before an Oireachtas committee tomorrow of the NTMA official in charge of the Nama project.
Brendan McDonagh, interim head of Nama, is due to appear before the Finance and the Public Service Committee in Leinster House alongside economist Dr Peter Bacon, architect of the plan and special adviser to the team heading the preparations.
They are likely to be questioned about the data provided today by the lending institutions and about the extent of their preparations for the new body and the parameters of its mandate.
At a meeting of another Oireachtas committee 10 days ago, NTMA chief executive Dr Michael Somers said his agency was not adequately staffed to cope with the operation of Nama or bank restructuring.
Dr Somers prompted considerable debate about his attitude to the Nama plan when stating before the committee that he knew “very little” about the new organisation, “apart from what has appeared in the newspapers”.
The NTMA has tendered for international tax advisers who will be charged with assessing the tax implications in Ireland and abroad of the Nama plan.
