THE CONSUMERS’ ASSOCIATION of Ireland is launching a class action-style initiative against Ulster Bank to help consumers recoup money lost during the recent major technical problems.
The CAI is calling on anyone who was affected by the Ulster Bank problems – whether they were customers of the bank or not – to provide details of how they were affected and the compensation they have been offered.
Class action law suits do not exist under Irish law, but the organisation says it will give the details to the Department of Finance, the Central Bank, the National Consumer Agency, the Irish Bankers Federation and Ulster Bank, so that “full transparent and definitive understanding of the losses and response to those losses can be determined for further consideration and, where deemed necessary, further action”.
The bank is already involved in working out exactly how much compensation will be paid to customers and has eight weeks to respond to any customers who have already been in contact to complain or ask about compensation.
CEO Jim Brown has said he expects that the bank will pay out tens of millions of euro in compensation.
The bank has told customers that any fees or charges that were incurred because of the technical problems will be automatically refunded.
Ulster Bank says that the majority of customer accounts are back to normal but that some outstanding transactions will be processed this week.
Read: Financial Services ombudsman ‘not overrun’ with Ulster Bank complaints >
Read: Central Bank: We can’t guarantee Ulster Bank fiasco won’t happen again >
have your say