Economic drivers of arrears Distinctive features of the economic environment surrounding the personal insolvency situation in Ireland include, on the downside, declines in:  1  Kilborn, Jason (2011) “Expert Recommendations and the Evolution of European Best Practices for the Treatment of Overindebtedness, 1984–2010”, (Deventer: Kluwer), p. 11.
2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1.  employment rates to levels not seen for many years;  2.  real after tax income even for those who have retained salaried jobs, as tax rates increased 2008–12, and many suffered pay cuts (with the pension levy also eating into the pay of public servants);  3.  residential property prices – now over 50 per cent off their peak levels of about six years ago, with the result that a very high percentage both of performing and nonperforming mortgage loans – whether owner-occupier or buy-to-let – are in negative equity;  On the positive side, at present ECB policy interest rates are low, which has helped keep the servicing costs of mortgages low, especially tracker mortgages of course, but also standard variable rate (SVR) mortgages, even though these have become relatively insensitive to the policy rate2 and now embody higher spreads over the banks’ marginal cost of funds than used to be the case.