http://www.rte.ie/news/business/2013/0827/470601-financial-ombudsman/
Long overdue in my opinion.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan has given the Financial Services Ombudsman the power to ''name and shame'' financial service providers who have at least three complaints against them substantiated.
The Minister said he had today signed a Statutory Instrument commencing section 72 of the Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement) Act 2013.
Mr Noonan said that this additional provision will mean that financial service providers who are failing their customers will be publicly identified and incentivised to make real improvements.
The section will come into effect on September 1.
The Financial Services Ombudsman, Bill Prasifka, has made repeated calls for the power to name and shame financial service providers.
In the past he had said that naming banks that are the subject of complaints to his office would create a "virtuous competition" in the institutions' behaviour towards customers.
He said making the complaints record of individual banks public would influence how they behave.
Mr Prasifka said the measure would be in the public interest, could be done at no cost to the exchequer, and should have been introduced a long time ago.
In a statement today, Mr Noonan said he understands that the Ombudsman intends to publish his first report with the names of those offending financial services providers early next year.
Long overdue in my opinion.