AIB BANK HAS repossessed 17 owner-occupied houses and 21 buy-to-let properties, and has written off debts in a small number of cases.

This is the current number of homes currently in possession of the bank, which said that the majority had been handed  over voluntarily.

The numbers were given at a sitting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform yesterday.

AIB chairman David Hodgkinson said there are 5,000 AIB customers who are working with the bank to deal with their mortgage debts, including in some cases moving to interest-only mortgages.

Mr Hodgkinson said the company was looking at a wide programme to offer customers different options to help keep them in their homes.

He added that the bank was preparing for a possible return to the markets later this year.

Hodgkinson also said that AIB may need to consider paying the bank’s new chief executive €190,000 more than the cap on bank executives’ pay.

The cap stands at €500,000.

Also at the Oireachtas Joint Committee meeting, the chief executive of Bank of Ireland, Richie Boucher, said that he plans to stay on as the bank’s head.

Head of mortgages at BOI, Linda Carraghar, said that there were 3,900 people who are the owner-occupier of their home that have had their mortgage payments modified.

Of this, 95 per cent are meeting interest-only payments at least.

Read: Fianna Fáil backs mortgage forgiveness>

Read: Mortgage relief as ECB expected to avoid hiking interest rates>