PMS Crisis Remains Unresolved

A year on from the Presbyterian Mutual Society (PMS) going into administration, the society's savers are still facing an unresolved crisis that has created pain and anxiety - especially in many local church congregations.

The leader of the Presbyterian Church, Rev Stafford Carson, said there is a huge frustration at the "slow process" of resolving the problem.

Rev Carson noted that a rescue plan for savers with other troubled financial bodies like the Dunfermline Building Society "could apparently be put together in a weekend".

However, after the society went into administration in November 2008 - after a run on its funds - one year later, a PMS solution has not yet been worked out.

In June, the Prime Minister set up a working group but since then, there had been little progress for PMS members, who are waiting for of their money.

Rev Carson said he considers the investors in the Mutual have been given strong support from all political parties in NI but not from Gordon Brown and the Westminster Government.

NI Finance Minister Sammy Wilson explained that he would soon meet officials again to receive an update on the progress being made, and said this involves "intense negotiations" with a number of banks.

Last June, it that emerged at least two "expressions of interest" in the PMS - one believed to be from the Ulster Bank had been made - but without no final deal.

Rev Carson that despite thinking the solution would take arrive quickly, five months later they are still waiting.

However, Sammy Wilson said there were "a number of complex legal, financial and regulatory issues" involved in resolving the PMS issue but he remained confident that a satisfactory conclusion could be achieved and he pointed out that his preferred solution would remain as a bank takeover.

The PMS was set up in 1982 in order to help its members and the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

Being a separate legal entity from the church, it received money from shareholders, made loans to churches and private individuals, and made investments in commercial property in England and Scotland, from which it was derived a rental income.

But it ran into trouble when the UK Government announced a guarantee scheme, which did not cover the society.

At that time, worried savers withdrew their money and the society was put into administration but around 9,500 savers have still not got any of their money back.

See: MP's Support For PMS Savers Welcomed

(CL/BMcC)