Irish central bank faces conflict of interest in mortgage role, ECB says

FRANKFURT: The Central Bank of Ireland faces a conflict of interest from its new role assessing competition in the Irish market for mortgage loans and giving lenders directions on variable interest rates, the European Central Bank said on Friday.

"The ECB considers that the CBI's new tasks relating to the variable rate mortgages qualify as government tasks," the ECB said in a legal opinion.

"In addition the conferral of this task on the CBI creates a conflict of interest with the CBI's monetary policy, banking supervision and financial stability tasks and objectives and raises concerns with regard to the independence of the CBI."