The capital rules are there to protect the depositors in the banks.
As the non-banks have no depositors, they are not subject to capital regulation. If they have big losses on Irish mortgages, their shareholders lose out - there would be no depositors at risk.
If only the minister for finance understood it, rather than using loss making trackers as his excuse...
""Irish mortgage rates are higher than the European average for a number of reasons, including the fact more than four in every 10 mortgages in this country are still loss-making trackers," he said."