International commercial bank Merrill Lynch and personal financial services firm Irish Life & Permanent have agreed to enter into a joint venture to create a new unit for specialist residential mortgage loans in the Republic of Ireland, which will be named Springboard Mortgages Limited.
Based in Dublin, the newly created arm will offer its products and services to selected third-party mortgage intermediaries, through its own staff and management team.
Merrill Lynch has considerable experience in the non-conforming mortgage market through its UK subsidiaries Mortgages Plc and Freedom Funding Ltd; and Irish Life & Permanent has an excellent direct and intermediary presence in the Irish mortgage market, commented Dan Pace, head of EMEA global structured finance & investments at Merrill Lynch. We are pleased about this next step forward in our expansion of our residential real estate platform in EMEA and are confident that the venture will provide borrowers and intermediaries with a compelling choice in the Irish mortgage market.
Currently, the specialist lending market in Ireland is expected to amount to E4 billion in loans over the next four to five years, according to Denis Casey, chief executive of Irish Life & Permanent’s banking subsidiary, Permanent TSB.