Bank of Ireland and other lenders are asking mortgage applicants employed by tech giants to provide letters from their employers saying their jobs are not at risk from the recent wave of layoffs that have hit the sector .
layoffs among tech workers are accelerating as demand for these companies decreases during the pandemic and as they prepare for a global economic downturn.
Gerry Hiney from Dublin-based mortgage brokerage Park Financial Planning said: “Lenders are asking for a letter from any company that has advertised about repayments saying that (mortgage applicants) have not been affected.
“We can get that (letter) in some cases but in other cases you can’t because employers don’t know if it will affect a person’s situation.
Every 10 mortgages we receive, three or four are usually from Facebook, Salesforce, Google and Microsoft, but it has decreased to two in 10 since the beginning of the year.”
He said that high-income people – usually more than € 100,000 – are those who are affected and there may be a knock on the high end of the housing market.
Trevor Grant, chairman of the Association of Irish Mortgage Advisors, said that ‘letters of comfort’ are sought by lenders if an employee in any sector has made a public announcement about job loss.
However, Bank of Ireland is “the only lender asking me for letters as examples for some technology companies that have announced job losses”.
Trevor Grant, chairman of the Association of Irish Mortgage Advisors, said ‘letters of comfort’ are sought by lenders if an employee in any sector has made a public announcement about job loss. .
A spokesman for Bank of Ireland said: “If an employee makes a public announcement about losing their job, we usually add a check to our pipeline to check that they are not affected. the customer before going downstairs.
“We have been doing this for companies in the technology sector since the beginning of the announcements made in November. Our experience so far is that many customers who are trying to advance do not The victims and their employers have provided evidence to prove this.
A spokesperson for AIBwhich also owns EBS and Haven, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesman for Bank and Payments Ireland said: “A borrower must comply with the requirements set out in the law and regulations to satisfy himself that the loan requested is permanent long.”
Google parent Alphabet said on Friday that it will cut 12,000 employees worldwide. Last week, Microsoft – which employs more than 3,500 people in Ireland – confirmed that it is eliminating approximately 10,000 roles worldwide.
In early January, Salesforce said it was laying off 8,000 people and Amazon was cutting more than 18,000 jobs. Twitter, Meta and Stripe have also announced job terminations.