Moneymakeover Irish Times: "Life loan proves a millstone for 97 year old"

[Bronte]

Looking at all of this, it's clear that the product worked exactly as marketed.

Sorry now, but you’ve got the wrong end of the stick, this product sold to 3000 people, involving lending of Three Hundred Million was not marketed. Ever. Never Happened.

 

[Bronte]

Yes, but I'd say they were the type of people to go to the bank when they need financial advice, and tell them they have a house but no funds and get offered this product

This clearly is “non marketing”. Going to your bank, and getting offered a secret hidden non marketed product is neither “hard sell” nor god forbid “marketing”. Clearly it’s sound financial advice, with no bank incentive to bank employee.

Any other “type of product’ springs to mind. By pillar banks. The whiter than white exulted ones.

This is AAM, for opinions, and hopefully continues to be. I don’t have the option of a friendly chat with a bank employee to tell me different to my views. But I most decidedly have a lot of experience of Irish banks, including Bank of Ireland.

 

[getting_on]

But I most decidedly have a lot of experience of Irish banks, including Bank of Ireland.

Were they not supposed to market it?

 

[Brendan Burgess]

1) Bank of Ireland did not advertise this product - that is clear unless someone has evidence to the contrary.
2) Advertising would be the key component of any proactive marketing
3) I don't know if they had notices in the bank branches - if they did that would be a form of advertising.
4) They presumably did a press release on it and presumably sent this out to journalists
5) They presumably notified mortgage brokers and other financial advisers
6) People were aware of the product.

• Articles were written about it in the paper
• The Law Society was up in arms about it
• It was discussed online

But the suggestion in the Irish Times that BoI took advantage of a vulnerable 72 year old woman by hard-selling an unsuitable loan is just not correct.