The banks' forbearance to customers in arrears may be storing up future trouble as household debt spirals... The banking system is desperately trying to hold back an ever-rising tide of overdue mortgages as high unemployment and increasing mortgage rates play havoc with family finances. Lenders have been ordered by the Financial Regulator to help people stay in their homes, even when they've stopped paying their loans, but how much forbearance can our weak financial system take before buckling? More than one in 10 borrowers is now in distress, according to the latest quarterly figures on residential mortgage arrears from the Financial Regulator and unofficial estimates by the Irish Banking Federation (IBF). Around 36,000 households are now more than 90 days in arrears, with two-thirds of that total more than six months behind on their mortgages, according to the regulator. The IBF is preparing new data on restructured mortgages – loans switched to easier repayment arrangements
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