Ulster 05 Oct 2017 10am Ulster Bank Finance Committee Hearing - Live Thread

Would one approach of protest be like mrbanks says sit it out in reception for a day maybe with a small plaque saying something like

"im affected by the scandal. i've received no information in X months. i dont know when i get my money back".

Dont leave the branch until you get on ulster bank headed paper what progress they have made with your case and why (in your case)
its oh SO complex. Get this faxed down to your branch from the top secret tracker review unit in Sandyford and give it to the Press.
 
I have to ask, why are more people not taking up the media offers to speak out? Are people afraid or embarrassed? The only way to get these banks to sort this scandal is to put human stories out there.
 
I have emailed Rebecca in liveline, Sean Orourke show. Been in touch with Irish Independent. My other half is going to make contact with Conor Pope. We all need to take action.
 
If there's a sit in or some such protest, count me in too.

I'm writing to the committee members in advance of Thursday's meeting. One point I'd like clarification on is how can UB just pluck out a date like 'well into 2018' and suddenly that becomes our new, updated resolution date. I must listen back but I'm sure GM said at the committee meeting last Dec that most of us would be back on trackers before the end of the year, and rebates given during 2017. How does he get to just award himself and his bank an extension of up to a year, and no-one says anything? What's to stop him dragging it out further again?

Also: if there are 3,500 of us, and 200 'experts' working on our very complicated cases... That's a caseload of 18 tracker accounts per expert. I was told by UB that we were 'impacted' back in March 2016. (Didn't get me tracker back though til Feb 2017.) So, how could it take an expert from March 2016 til 'well into 2018' to work out the refund due to me and just 17 other cases???
 
If there's a sit in or some such protest, count me in too.

I'm writing to the committee members in advance of Thursday's meeting. One point I'd like clarification on is how can UB just pluck out a date like 'well into 2018' and suddenly that becomes our new, updated resolution date. I must listen back but I'm sure GM said at the committee meeting last Dec that most of us would be back on trackers before the end of the year, and rebates given during 2017. How does he get to just award himself and his bank an extension of up to a year, and no-one says anything? What's to stop him dragging it out further again?

Also: if there are 3,500 of us, and 200 'experts' working on our very complicated cases... That's a caseload of 18 tracker accounts per expert. I was told by UB that we were 'impacted' back in March 2016. (Didn't get me tracker back though til Feb 2017.) So, how could it take an expert from March 2016 til 'well into 2018' to work out the refund due to me and just 17 other cases???

Agreed.

I support the idea of protest. I also think that John McGuinness is in a position to help here. He mentioned in the Committee meeting last week that he wanted Ulsterbank to respond to items raised at the meeting by way of the transcripts of that meeting. My sense was that he expected this response in the immediate future and did not want to wait until the next time they met. We should put pressure on McGuinness to instruct Ulsterbank to clarify the timeframe for completing the redress process and not let them away with the 'well into 2018' excuse.
 
Agree as well.
Any email addresses for finance committee? Where can I locate these please?
 
A few other thoughts following Ulster Bank Appearance:

Fine Gael: there appears to almost total lack of engagement by Fine Gael on this issue. Only 2 FG Senators who were semi motivated or informed attended at Committee for 20 min approx. This is typical for appearance of all Banks at Committee. Can we all contact FG reps on Committee in particular, and our local TDs and Minister for Finance to highlight? Also FF and SF should be encouraged to highlight in Dail with Finance Minister- Dail Debate etc?

Likewise Labour have not shown any interest- Sean Sherlock TD not in attendance and did not reply to me previously?

Central Bank; CB need to be contacted by all with personal stories so they have full knowledge of UB shortcomings . Not sure of copying FSO in same context?

Campaign; These have been musings of CB protest etc? Challenge as always is numbers and how many of the potentially 4,000 Plus customers we have on board on this forum- I suspect 10% most?

How do we mobilise in a structured manner in coming weeks to keep pressure on and ensure this does not die for another year?
Ideas for Social Media, Political, Papers, Radio interviews etc??

Thinking again of various approaches to keep campaign alive. I feel Fine Gael Government and Minister for Finance need to targeted ❔ . Also the 4 FG reps on the Finance Committee should all be contacted to engage and understand issue.
 
A number of customers across all the banks will speak to the Finance Committee on the live & on the record on Thursday morning. At least one of whom is a member of this forum.

The next step for the Committee is to hear from the Central Bank on Thursday week (19th October).

At this point I believe that the Central Bank have a huge amount of questions to answer. Technically they are the only ones that can bring the banks into line at the moment, in the absence of a change in legislation.

I'd strongly advise you all to start writing to the committee with the questions that you would like answered in advance of this hearing. Remember, the Central Bank will not answer individual queries, but they will answer general queries relating to their guidelines and rules for undertaking the Examination.

Mobilise and ask those questions of the Committee. Focus your ire there for the next 10 days. It's the best chance of getting answers.
 
I agree that the more people who contact the committee the better. John McGuinness forwarded my email about my tracker mortgage redress delay to the Central Bank and I got an email today from the Public Communications unit of the Bank to say that Governor Lane had been made aware of this ongoing issue. It is good to know that some notice is being taken of what we write and the more people who contact the committee the better. It doesn't matter what bank you are with, as the stories are very similar. If you are lucky enough to have been identified as an affected customer you have been left in limbo for far to long with no update, no calculations, no refund or even a timeline for redress. It is completely unacceptable.
 
I think this is the best approach for now. If things don't progress over the next 10 days then we definitely need to come together and protest.
 
Hi All, following this for number of months now and like so many others I had to join. Long story short I'm an ex ub staff member. All my mortgage on tracker in 2006. In 2007 I was made permanent and 4 times my salary was put onto staff fixed rate of 3% and I fixed the remaining for 2 years. In Jan 2017 I was sent a letter out to say that we had been effected by tracker investigation. Only the smaller amount of my mortgage has been put back on tracker rate. I can switch my staff rate at anytime as it was part of my redundancy but they will not put it on a tracker rate, where it was originally. What's laughable is I still have family and friends in Ub. They are trying hard to get everyone who is still on a staff rate off them as they no longer offer staff rate. Anyone who makes amendments to their staff mortgage will automatically loose it and they are pushing to get rid of them except mine! I have battled fso, their complaints dept to absolutely no avail. Got a letter this morning advising my complaint is still being dealt with and another 60 days has to go by till they give another automated letter of no substance or help. Fso have been a disaster no help. I am desperate to get this sorted as money has been extremely tight for a number of years, I have had to avail of moritouriums over the years. I am sure there are plenty like our family but I felt I needed to vent and share my story. Common sense does not prevail here and I don't know how any of them can sleep at night.
 
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