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3,500 Ulster Bank mortgage holders were wrongly removed from tracker rate

Updated 15:45 Ulster Bank has denied it broke the law over the tracker mortgage scandal. 3,500 U...
Newstalk
Newstalk

13.27 1 Feb 2018


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3,500 Ulster Bank mortgage hol...

3,500 Ulster Bank mortgage holders were wrongly removed from tracker rate

Newstalk
Newstalk

13.27 1 Feb 2018


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Updated 15:45

Ulster Bank has denied it broke the law over the tracker mortgage scandal.

3,500 Ulster Bank mortgage holders were wrongly removed from the tracker rate, according to the bank

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Only 1,200 of those have been compensated so far - only around a third of the total.

15 customers lost their homes because of the scandal, with the bank saying they were offering redress to them.

One of those customers got a payment of €300,000 in compensation, and officials have not ruled out further payments on that scale.

The bank earned an extra €100m by wrongfully moving customers off tracker rates.

Representatives of the bank appeared before the Oireachtas Finance Committee today.

Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty asked Ulster Bank CFO Paul Stanley whether he thought the bank had broken the law on this issue:

Mr Stanley said: "The contractual view is it wasn't broken.

"That's not the issue here. The issue here is it was ambiguous from a customer perspective, and created an expectation that they could revert to a tracker."

Fianna Fáil's Michael McGrath, meanwhile, was one of the TDs and Senators criticising the lack of progress in paying back customers

Deputy McGrath argued: "The examination started in late 2015 - in your case I think March 2016.

"We're now into February 2018, and they haven't heard from the bank. That's not good enough."

"Pathetic"

Deputy Doherty said the ongoing compensation process is taking too long – labelling it “pathetic” that only 197 customers were paid their money back in January 2018.

He told senior bankers they need to work harder to ensure those who are out of pocket get their money back:

The bank said they hope everyone caught up in the mortgage scandal will get their money back by June.


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