Guest Speaker: Brendan Burgess, askaboutmoney.com
'Getting the mortgage arrears crisis into perspective'.
Brendan will look at the mortgage arrears crisis and challenge the views expressed by some economists.'
Brendan has been campaigning on behalf of financial consumers for over twenty years. His most high profile campaign has been in respect of the treatment of borrowers by the Irish Nationwide Building Society. This included putting down a motion of no confidence in the Chief Executive Michael Fingleton at the Society’s 2005 AGM. He has frequently adopted a contrarian stance on topics – for example, he strongly believes that there are too few repossessions of family homes in Ireland.
Brendan set up the consumer finance website askaboutmoney.com in 1999. He chaired the Consumer Panel of the Financial Regulator from 2004 to 2007 and was a member of the Expert Group on Mortgage Arrears – The Cooney Group in 2010.
Brendan, a chartered accountant, set up the employment agency, The Accountants Panel in 1987 which he ran until he sold the business in 2010. He is now a full-time consumer advocate.