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tracker mortgage scandal
Here's how many customers each of the main banks say they overcharged
Some of the banks have increased their numbers significantly.
TODAY THE CENTRAL bank revealed the number of customers overcharged by their banks as a result of the tracker mortgage scandal had risen to 33,700.
In a strongly-worded statement, it also said that in 13,600 of those cases it had to push for the lenders to admit these customers were impacted.
Today all of the main banks issued statements updating their numbers, with one of them – AIB - admitting to issues with an additional 4,900 accounts.
Here is where the numbers stand now
AIB split impacted customers into three groups
- The first group was no longer on a tracker even though these customers were entitled to be – a total of 4,446. Of these, 900 have only recently been accepted by the bank as impacted.
- The second group was on a tracker rate, but these customers were being charged a higher rate than they should have been - a total of 956.
- The third group was never actually on a tracker rate. These customers had the contractual option to choose a prevailing tracker at the end of their fixed period, but the bank withdrew this product between October 2008 and December 2013. There are 4,000 of these accounts.
These new figures bring the total number of impacted AIB accounts to 13,848.
The bank has compensated 3,146 customers in the first group and a further 130 will be complete by the end of the year. AIB also identified 956 customers who were on a tracker rate, but who were being charged a higher rate of interest than they should have been. It most cases, the bank said the overcharging was less than €500.
So far, 736 accounts in the second group have received redress and compensation and another 220 will receive payments by the end of March next year.
AIB will pay each of the customers in the third group compensation of €1,000 plus €615 towards independent advice by the end of March 2018. They will also have the option for a 12 month period to avail of the bank’s current prevailing tracker rate on a go forward basis and the right to appeal through the independent appeals process.
KBC‘s figures have also increased significantly. The lender had initially identified 417 accounts as impacted and it said the majority of these will receive redress and compensation by the end of the year. This had been on top of the 517 overcharged accounts the bank had identified in a review back in 2010.
In October this year, however, the bank said it anticipated an additional 200 – 600 accounts would be identified. Today the bank said the actual number of additional impacted accounts is 2,557.
“These accounts will be moved back to a tracker rate, if the account is still open, and they will receive redress and compensation,” it said. Payment of redress and compensation for the customers identified more recently as impacted will commence in January 2018 and complete by the end of June 2018.
Bank of Ireland, which has admitted to overcharging on 10,300 accounts, said all impacted customers with an open mortgage account have been returned to their correct tracker rate.
7,270 customers have been contacted with an offer of compensation, and an additional 400 offers of compensation were issued today.
1,947 customers have received payment of their compensation to date and a further 250 compensation payments are currently being processed.
“We are working hard to make things right for all impacted customers – and are continuing to work closely with them to ensure that we can fix this issue, as sensitively as we can, in all cases,” the bank’s CEO Francesca McDonagh said in a statement.
Ulster Bank, which has identified just under 3,500 customers as impacted, said all have been put back on their tracker rate.
Redress and compensation has been paid to 1,017 customers to date.
“I would like to reiterate my unreserved apology for the failures which led to customers being impacted under the examination, as well as for the length of time which it is taking for us to put this right. This apology extends to all customers, even those not impacted by the examination as well as to our people working in Ulster Bank. However, we continue to learn from this and we are focused on completing this process, putting this right and rebuilding trust in Ulster Bank,” chief executive Gerry Mallon said.
Mallon also said that following feedback from the Central Bank, Ulster Bank is working to identify any additional impacted customers.
Permanent TSB has paid back and compensated all 1,980 customers it identified as impacted by the scandal. Chief Executive Jeremy Masding said the failures which led to this issue should not have occurred.
“We again apologise to all customers who were impacted by these failures.”
The Central Bank has a number of enforcement investigations ongoing and is also due to make a report to the Minister next summer.
Read: It gets worse: Central Bank forces lenders to admit 13,600 more tracker victims overcharged>
