Bank of Ireland says it has seen a slowdown in the rate of homeowners falling behind in mortgage payments.

It has released details in a statement this morning in which management says they have continued to  formally restructure and modify a significant number of homeloans ‘on a sustainable basis’.

The bank says its exposures to the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector and its mortgage book in this country continue to be key priorities.

It says 86% of customers whose mortgages are currently in restructure or modification are fully meeting their revised arrangements.

While international corporate, unsecured consumer and UK mortgage books continue to perform “relatively well and in line with” their expectations.

Reduction in impairment charges

The bank expects impairment charges will reduce from the high levels seen in 2011 towards a more normalised impairment charge as the domestic economy recovers.

However it warns that the pace of reduction is particularly dependent on the performance of the Irish residential mortgage book and of commercial real estate markets.

The bank says it has continued to reduce pay rates on customer deposits in the Irish domestic market and that operating costs remain “under tight control with our cost reduction initiatives delivering sustainable cost savings”.

It says that they expect the restructuring plan of €66 million taken on June 30th will be fully utilised by the end of this year.

Newstalk’s business editor Ian Guider has been looking at the numbers.