Central Bank update for consumers on Examination of Tracker Mortgage issues

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

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Charlie Weston had a story on this update published on the Central Bank website on 27 April.

Update on Examination of Tracker Mortgage issues - Information for consumers


27 April 2016
What is the latest position with the Tracker Examination announced last year?

As set out in previous updates ([broken link removed] and [broken link removed]), the Central Bank is undertaking an examination of tracker mortgage-related issues covering, among other things, transparency of communications with and contractual rights of tracker mortgage customers.

The Central Bank’s consumer protection framework requires all lenders to act in their consumers’ best interests, which includes disclosing material information to consumers in a manner which seeks to inform them. Such disclosure is critical to enabling consumers to make informed decisions and is a core principle of the Examination.

The initial phase of the Examination required lenders to put plans and frameworks in place by the end of March 2016, in line with principles prescribed by the Central Bank. This phase includes the requirement for appropriate governance and reporting structures to be put in place to deliver on the Examination Framework as set out by the Central Bank. These plans have now been received and are currently being reviewed.

The scale and complexity of this examination means that this work will be ongoing through 2016 and will conclude in 2017.

What do lenders have to do now that plans have been submitted?

Lenders are now required to move to the next phase of their reviews and identify any customers who may have been impacted by:

  • the lender’s failure to honour a customer’s contractual entitlements or
  • its failure to comply with the regulatory requirements regarding disclosure and transparency of information.
Lenders have appointed external independent third party assurers to oversee this work and to ensure that the review is being carried out in line with the Central Bank’s requirements.

When will consumers find out if they have been impacted?

The Central Bank expects lenders to communicate with all impacted customers in a timely and clear way. Some customers may be contacted sooner than others, depending on the speed of progress being made by their lender in completing the Examination. Lenders are also expected to have the necessary staff and systems in place to deal with customers’ queries in an accurate and timely manner throughout the course of the Examination.

What will happen if I am impacted?

The Examination framework provides that when impacted customers are identified; in the first instance, lenders must stop charging the incorrect rate of interest on the customer’s account to ensure that any further customer detriment is stopped as early as possible and communicate this to the customer.

Once a full review of the customer’s account is complete, lenders will issue a letter to the customer explaining the nature of the error, the correct rate to apply to the customer’s account and information on the next steps in the Examination, including the redress and compensation process.

Lenders are required to treat the review of all customer accounts within the scope of the Examination in the same way, regardless of whether the customer has previously made a complaint to the lender or to the Financial Services Ombudsman.

When will further information on the Examination be available?

A further update on progress with the Examination will be issued at the end of July.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
in the first instance, lenders must stop charging the incorrect rate of interest on the customer’s account to ensure that any further customer detriment is stopped
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OK, so they have learned something from the ptsb fiasco. The Central Bank told ptsb to seek the permission of borrowers to be charged the correct rate. It's far more sensible to stop the overcharge immediately and talk about refunds and compensation afterwards.
 
Hi Brendan, whom to we contact to be sure we're included in the tracker investigation, we're with AIB, moved to a fixed probably around 06/07, queried at the time about going back to tracker, never had any correspondance from AIB regards this investigatio, is it the bank or someone else I need to contact or are all Mortgages that switched from tracker to fixed automatically going to me examined ?
 
You will have to write to AIB.

I wonder if all the lenders have set up a special hotline for queries on this issue?

Brendan
 
KBC Bank have not set up anything. The customer services team had not been informed in any real detail about the investigation so I have written them a letter through their complaints department to get an update. This usually take 4 weeks to get a response.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
You will have to write to AIB.

I wonder if all the lenders have set up a special hotline for queries on this issue?

Brendan
Click to expand...
Bank of Ireland have set up a hotline for tracker queries, phone 1890882722 or by post to Bank of Ireland Tracker Mortgage Examination, PO Box 400, Castleisland, Co Kerry.
 
Does anyone know if ptsb are still included in this investigation because there are still serious question marks over tracker interest rates with the redress customers? Or has the central bank drawn a line under that one?
 
Brendan Burgess said:
All mortgage lenders, including ptsb, are included in the review.
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Im an affected Ulster Bank Customer and have been seeking an update from them on the CB Tracker review for several months now. They fail to respond to letters and don't appear to have any dedicated staff or contact Line.

In my telephone call to them last week, I was advised that all trackers were included in their review, but no details available on timeline- they advise all will be revealed in due course??

Worryingly, they also advised that their review was being undertaken internally, and not by any independent body as outlined in last CB Update?

Any comments or advice welcome.
 
After being given the exact same response by the Mortgage team on the phone, I wrote to my bank manager in the middle of this month asking for clarification. They called me the next working day and gave me the following address to write to:

Tracker Mortgage Examination Program, Ulster Bank, 4th Floor, 33 College Green, Dublin 2

It appears that they do have a specific department set up to investigate the tracker mortgage issues. However, I've not had a response to my correspondence sent to this address yet.
 
Nice of them to let their customers know that this department has been set up.

I have found that the best way to deal with UB is to write to them, as usual they wont respond, send in a complaint then they are required to respond to it.
 
Ulster bank really take the biscuit- I have written 3 letters to them asking about the tracker review but nada back.

Thank you for the update SaySomething, another letter will be going to that address in the morning!
 
Does anyone actually know when the banks are required to write to affected customers? I'm sure once this happens people that don't get letters are going to be very unhappy as I don't see the banks coming clean.
 
corktim said:
Nice of them to let their customers know that this department has been set up.

I have found that the best way to deal with UB is to write to them, as usual they wont respond, send in a complaint then they are required to respond to it.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I intend to do. If they do not respond to me within 28 days of receipt of my first letter I'll issue the complaint. As always, when dealing with UB, it's a good policy to correspond using registered post.

I was originally informed by UB mortgage services over the phone that all customers who held/hold a tracker mortgage would be included in the review and that letters would be issuing to affected customers in September. Unfortunately past experience has taught me that these phone conversations cannot be relied upon.
 
Next update from Central Bank is end of July.

I don't know what good contacting the bank will do in the meantime as all customers affected are included whether or not a complaint was made. This is a Central Bank stipulation, not something the banks can choose to do or not to do.

Also when you conact the bank, you will just get someone low down in the pecking order who will follow a set script and really tell you nothing at all.

Yes, the banks are doing the work themselves, but they have had to have a third party "assurer" involved. In the case of KBC it is Deloitte.

Central bank has shown that they have teeth and will use those teeth - unlike the ombudsman which really was run by banking people with affinity to the banks.
 
I've written many letters to Ulster Bank over the last few months - I had the most success when I emailed them [email protected] - and set them a specific time limit - ie 5 days or as specific as in my hand by Friday at 5pm but they would ware you down, which of course is exactly what they are trying to do.

Again, from my own dealings with them, they refuse to comment on a timeline - and just keep saying the report is due to the Central Bank on 30th September
 
You could possibly appeal if the review was unsuccessful, not carried out properly or you weren't considered to the High Court, but you are looking at huge costs, even more so if you lose and it would take at least a year for that case to be heard - it's a pretty bleak picture to be honest. That isn't even considering the stress of a high court case. As far as I understand all cases would have to be taken individually as there are no provisions in Irish Law for a class action suit as they can in North America
 
SaySomething said:
After being given the exact same response by the Mortgage team on the phone, I wrote to my bank manager in the middle of this month asking for clarification. They called me the next working day and gave me the following address to write to:

Tracker Mortgage Examination Program, Ulster Bank, 4th Floor, 33 College Green, Dublin 2

It appears that they do have a specific department set up to investigate the tracker mortgage issues. However, I've not had a response to my correspondence sent to this address yet.
Click to expand...

I have now recieved letter from UB Manager of Complaints Handling Centre, Leopardstown, which i presume is a standard issue, saying I am part of review. Case referred to Examination review team?- no timescale and saying an update will issue at least every 60 days.

Have others received?
 
I got one also,same as above. no real info on it. Anyone that had a tracker will get one id say.
 
To paraphrase the letter: We received your complaint. Apologies for the delay in responding. It has been referred to the Examinations Team. We have no idea of how long this will take. We will write to you every now and again with updates.

What is the best course of action here? Sit and wait it out? In my case the amount of difference between my present repayments and the contractual ECB rate is large enough (to me anyway) and I have very little trust in the bank. I'm concerned that this time next year I'll still be waiting to hear whether my review has been completed or not.
 
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