THE NORTH’S Minister for Enterprise has described the “manner” in which Bank of Scotland Ireland appears to be dealing with creditors as “very worrying”.
Arlene Foster said recent decisions by the bank to appoint administrators to former key clients in the North was “a worrying trend”.
The Minister said Bank of Scotland Ireland’s (BoSI) decision to leave the “island of Ireland” could have significant implications for the North’s economy.
“As I understand it, BoSI has given its mortgages and what have you to a company to deal with them, and they are just putting them into administration.”
She believes the case of businessman Jim Treacy, who developed a five-star hotel and golf resort in Co Fermanagh, underlines how Bank of Scotland is currently operating in the North.
Mr Treacy’s business, Castle Hume Leisure Ltd which owns the resort, was placed in administration this month. He owes BoSI some £25 million.
The Minister said she understood Mr Treacy had been in negotiations with the bank for at least six months about how he was dealing with the debt. She was told they “just closed it down and brought in the administrators virtually without warning”.
“The manner in which that particular bank appears to be dealing with its creditors is very worrying indeed. They don’t have a long-term plan for being in Northern Ireland so they are just closing things down and crystallising their assets and that, of course, is very damaging”.
A spokeswoman for the bank said it would only appoint an administrator “as a last resort and as a direct result of significant deterioration in a company’s financial situation”.
“The economic downturn has had a significant impact on many businesses in Northern Ireland,” she said. “The bank, through its business support unit and its relationship with Certus in Ireland, has considerable expertise in applying workout strategies to support customers in financial difficulty. This was the position under Bank of Scotland (Ireland), and it remains the position under Bank of Scotland plc.”
Ms Foster said while she had complaints about other banks, she believed Northern Bank, Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank do not seem to be “in the same place” as BoSI or Anglo Irish Bank.
She voiced her concerns in the week administrators appointed by Bank of Scotland to another multi-million-pound hotel development in Belfast confirmed their intention to sell it as a going concern.
Corner Blok, which was set up by award-winning architect Colin Conn and quantity surveyor Paul Durnien, acquired and renovated a former bank building in the Cathedral Quarter in Belfast which resulted in the Four Corners Hotel.
