Specialist intermediary-focused debt management firm Blu will be one of the only debt management providers to operate in the whole of Northern Ireland and Rory will provide debt management solutions both advisers and borrowers across the region.
Blu will provide Northern Ireland advisers with the same service that they provide to those England, Scotland and Wales: offering advisers debt management and IVA options for their clients, together with a full back-up service including education on the products, and a marketing toolbox to help advisers educate their clients about the debt management solutions available to them.
Irish homeowners have suffered a 40% drop in house prices over the last two years, so many people with debts find themselves in an impossible situation, with mounting debts but unable to remortgage or move to a new property. Many borrowers also invested heavily in buy-top-let, only to see their investment almost halve and there is a growing number of cases where people are just handing back the keys to their properties because they can’t afford the mortgage payments.
Commenting, Peter Moat, managing director of Blu Debt management, said, “It is a very different culture in Northern Ireland, many advisers don’t even know what debt management is. Consumers traditionally ask their friends and neighbours for advice rather than go to an adviser - but with the fall in house prices the need for professional advice and responsible debt management solutions is escalating, and this has been reflected in the huge demand we have seen from advisers there for the type of solution that we can offer them.”
