The IFA has committed to a sustained campaign against AIB’s decision to sell certain farmer loans in its most recent loan sale.
Speaking as part of a group of IFA members outside the AIB AGM last week, IFA’s Farm Business Chairman Martin Stapleton said, “It is wrong that AIB would sell these loans to a vulture fund, who is not interested in resolving issues by entering into long term arrangements with farmers.”
Martin Stapleton continued, “This decision flies in the face of AIB’s marketing campaign which is built around ‘backing brave’. We want AIB to remove loans from the sale that have been restructured, or where the farmer is making a genuine attempt to pay or negotiate with the bank”.
“The sale of loans occurs without any clear selection criteria being provided to the borrower. There is no transparency in how AIB approach these sales. AIB were engaging with many of these individual cases in the pursuit of a resolution but they then continued with the sales. This gave false hope to these farmers who are under serious pressure,” said IFA’s Farm Business Chairman.
“Over the next few weeks IFA will be bringing our campaign around Ireland. We intend to have a rolling presence outside branches around the country reminding customers about how these farmers have been treated by AIB and insisting that such loans are removed from the sale portfolio,” he said.
