KBC KBC told brokers" all fixed rate loans will roll onto trackers on expiry"

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Strong results for KBC Ireland today. This is all I see so far in the news:

KBC Bank Ireland said it has continued to reduce its stock of impaired loans as it reported that net profit for the first six months of the year nearly doubled to €173.1m after tax and impairments, when compared with the first half of 2016 (€99.4m).

The lender's stock of impaired loans fell by 16% to €5.1 billion over the period, while it said its tracker mortgage review is ongoing.

KBC Bank Ireland CEO Wim Verbraeken said the bank has reached out to customers "who were not on the right rate" to address the situation.

Has anyone here "been reached out to"?
 
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Just looking back this is the exact same line he has used at recent results announcements.
 
Interesting - got about 10 letters from them today confirming various email, phone number and minor address changes made over the past 10 years.

Possibly means that they have got to reviewing my file - no other reason for these letters as some of the changes go back a few years.
 
Should it be understood that if you have not been "reached" by end September , KBC consider you have no case. is KBC bound to explain the rationale for such decisions?
 
A systemic industry wide issue and they have reached out to only two customers and we are in the middle of august . They can keep reaching !
Anyone thats contacted them already are to be informed by letter of whether successful or not, cant imagine it will be forensic review of the case . Wonder if many of the other lenders have been busy this month in lead up to deadline.
 
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Hi all i too have a KBC mortgage [since 2004] in december 2006 i was due to finish a fixed term period. i received a letter stating that 'given the current environment of rising interest rates many customers are choosing to fix their interest rate to allow peace of mind’ and ‘as a valued customer we are delighted to offer you the opportunity to pre book a fixed rate now which we will hold for you at todays rates until your current rate expires’. there was also nomention of the new rate. this letter was one month after the proposed flyer but i was never even offered a tracker or 'most suitable product'. i did not previously have a tracker though. if there are cases to be had do you think i fit into the category? if so what is my path of complaint, any advice would be appreciated. thanks
 
Update, i found this from the central bank dated 23mar17.
3.2 IN-SCOPE MORTGAGE ACCOUNTS 3.2.1 In the course of the Examination the lender is to review all mortgage accounts in respect of both Private Dwelling Houses and Buy-to-Let properties: APPENDIX 1 3  that originated on Tracker Interest Rates1 ;  that had Tracker Interest Rates applied at any stage during the term of the underlying mortgage agreements; and/or  where the underlying mortgage agreements provided for contractual rights to or options2 for Tracker Interest Rates at any stage during the term of the agreements. For the avoidance of doubt, this includes all mortgage accounts that have been redeemed, sold or transferred to another entity by the lender, together with mortgage accounts where the customer has lost possession of the secured property for any reason (including by way of voluntary and involuntary sale). 3.3 SEGMENTATION 3.3.1 For the purposes of the Examination, the lender is to identify all circumstances where:  Tracker Interest Rates were applied to mortgage accounts at any stage during the Relevant Period but are no longer being applied to those accounts;  a Tracker Interest Rate margin applying to a mortgage account at any stage during the Relevant Period is higher than any previous margin applied to that mortgage account;  customers had contractual rights to have Tracker Interest Rates applied to their mortgage accounts at any stage during the Relevant Period and the Tracker Interest Rates were not applied to their mortgage accounts at the appropriate and/or any stage during the Relevant Period; and  customers had contractual rights to be offered the option of having Tracker Interest Rates applied to their mortgage accounts at any stage during the Relevant Period and were not offered the option of having Tracker Interest Rates applied to their accounts at the appropriate and/or any stage during the Relevant Period and to determine whether or not all:  contractual rights and obligations regarding Tracker Interest Rates were adhered to and/or honoured during the Relevant Period; and  obligations arising pursuant to the consumer protection regulations as set out in the “Regulatory Framework” section below were complied with. 3.4 REGULATORY FRAMEWORK 3.4.1 In the course of the Examination, the lender is to determine whether or not in all circumstances it has complied with its consumer protection regulatory obligations arising pursuant to the following:  Code of Practice for Credit Institutions, 2001;  Consumer Protection Codes, 2006 and 2012; 1 For the purposes of the Examination, a “Tracker Interest Rate” refers to the interest rate applied to a mortgage product: 1) which tracks a rate which comes from a publicly available source which can be verified by both the customer and the regulated entity, including without limitation, a rate that tracks the European Central Bank (ECB) main refinancing operations rate; and 2) which is calculated in a manner similar to a rate which falls within 1) above, and includes interest rates calculated on the basis of a fixed rate margin and/or pricing promise. 2 Both enduring and one-off contractual rights and options are to be included within the scope of the Examination.
For those of us, like myself, who are unsure whether you have a claim [largely based on never being on a tracker], it looks like there may be hope if you were not offered the option of traker when it was available.
 
Hi All
It has been sometime since I updated this particular thread. I want to state that there is alot of work done but more to do. For the contributors who are less than confident of the merits of my original claims I can only say at this point 'Watch this space'. It has been a very trying journey with this lender and the arrogance of their continuing positions is astounding. I know I am certain what should occur here and just because this bank has to date refused to accept any position from affected customers does not make them correct and me wrong. KBC thought with a failed FSO process allowed it to continue to get away with its actions and carry on regardless. That is all I can say for the moment. Be in touch soon and of course anyone with queries please email us at [email protected] and we will help in anyway we can. I can state that a large bank of evidence has been gathered against this bank from customers who have engaged with the office and that process has been enormously helpful for the investigation into KBC as a whole.
Best Padraic
 
Today i spoke to the solictior that dealt with my original mortgage, basically they were keen to take on my case but i think my first action is to challenge KBC what do people think?
 
Thanks for the update Pauric. From reading between the lines and in particular the text regarding "continuing positions" it seems unlikely that relevant kbc consumers will get much satisfaction by end September via the central bank review.
 
My reading of it too. Seems as if KBC are beyond reproach and the review was a PR exercise by the central bank. I don't expect many good outcomes for KBC customers , Mr Kissane doesn't sound very positive . Excuse my ignorance but are the Central bank reviewing the cases or are the bank reviewing them themselves and self regulating?
 
I think it's time that effected KBC customers got together! I understand Padraig has held meetings for effected customers with the other banks. Can we have have a gathering Padraic? I think this was on your agenda anyway recently!
 
Thanks for the update Padraic I certainly don’t doubt the merits of your argument or your ability to articulate it

I read his update to be a small bit more positive than you guys possibly, it’s a waiting game as we all expected …but ive always felt kbc have behaved the worst from reading these and other threads

The more I read on this the less clear it becomes clear.
KBC were always going to say no one has a case to answer for, the lack of successful cases coming forward even on these threads would have indicated this even in the final weeks leading up to it . This would be in keeping with them being months behind all the others at every stage and last to admit they were part of review and last to admit they had redress put aside etc .

I was under the impression Central Bank would then review the results of the 99.99% they said weren’t entitled to trackers back and the central bank would then make a ruling on these ………and say for example 40% are due a tracker back , and would show where other banks have similar cases with similar underlying circumstances and force KBC to return tracker………

If the central bank agree with 100% of KBC’s rulings what was the point of it all …and if it was systemic then how have KBC avoided returning the several thousand cases back to their tracker rate when other lenders have had to.

Please tell me there is a lot of back and forward going to happen now ..........the next update from the Governor needs to have Lender specific information.

They aren’t state owned do they think they can behave differently ?

Would be worth grouping together alright towards end of September don't see a flurry of letters arriving in peoples doors anytime soom.
 
I spoke to KBC this week to get my monthly update and again no update on phase "2". I asked what is the difference between phase 1 and phase 2 of the affected customers and also the difference between the customers returning to their tracker and mine. They could not give any answers. I then asked if the September deadline will be met and they advised this could easily be pushed out because of the scale of it......
 
This update makes for very depressing reading. I am awaiting a decision from KBC as I am in the tracker review. KBC have told me repeatedly on the phone that they must notify all customers by September 2017, as instructed by the Central Bank. I am still sure they will have to do this, even if the notification is the bare minimum. (A carefully worded bank letter.) Those who are / are not getting their tracker rates returned should know by September. After that, the next stage of the process will start. How much did they overcharge? How much is the compensation? This has been dragging on for years and has been so badly handled.
 
The point is from reading Padraic's note, (which I personally feel is positive) KBC continue to blatantly deny any wrong doing! Right now, at this late stage, being the second half of August and reading between the lines, we can imagine the battle that is still going on in the background between this bank and PK and the CB. They simply won't budge. They intend "reaching out" to no one. If they reach out to one they have to reach out to thousands. They thought having reached out to one or two that they would Get away with it.

I have had my own battle directly with this bank and their behaviour has been shocking.
Including relavent documents missing from my data access request. Manipulation of requested documents, denial of phone conversations, being told over and over again "apologies that was a mistake" data protection issues etc. It is truly shocking. I am happy to just wait for "that letter " as I have my ducks in a row.

How many accounts however are simply just "sitting back and waiting for something to happen...."

A meeting between KBC effected customers would be of benefit to all effected as the other effected customers have had i.e. Ptsb,Ulster bank Aib etc. There are many issues that need to be made public.

It is not acceptable that we continue to be pushed aside. Most of us on this site know what happened with this particular bank however others don't and are simply just waiting for the "good news".

This bank however is not behaving like the rest.
 
I am obviously being naive thinking that KBC - though indeed they are tight lipped on the subject - will have to follow the direction of the CB on this. They can't just "do their own thing" as you (Lightening) imply. But, whereas the big Irish banks have begun notifying costumers over the last 9 months or so, KBC seem to have notified no one. They are certainly resisting. I am happy to attend any group meeting. And if they don't reply to my claim by September as promised I will be going to the media.
 
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