Banks sell product like any other company and of course if they have a loss make they will discontinue it. Indeed it could be argued that they have an obligation to their shareholders to exit such products as soon as possible. You cannot claim that such behaviour is criminal in one company and fine in another company, just because it happens to impact you.
They can exit *offering* such products, but they entered into a legally binding contract to provide the product which they have to honour.
I think there was a deliberate decision taken to interpret the contracts in such a way as to favour the banks.
There was breach of contract, no doubt.
Was there legal fraud? I'm not sure. The bar as Brendan notes is quite high, and I think we should respect his opinion on that.
I think in some jurisdictions it would be considered a criminal case. I have no doubt if this happened in the USA, we would have seen perp walks of banking staff in handcuffs by now.
But even if it was criminal in Ireland I would not trust AGS to progress it.
Was it ethical (i.e. professional) fraud? Yes, for sure. I have no doubt that there was a
deliberate,
concerted,
conscious attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of customers, to the advantage of the banks - customers to whom they have contractual and professional responsibilities.
Everyone involved if this should be identified and stripped of
all qualified financial advisor qualifications and all professional certifications and reset to zero - and for those at director level, disbarred for such responsibilities. If that means
people lose their jobs, so be it.
They had a chance to honour their professional ethical responsibilties, they failed.
If jobs were lost, this would never happen again, because the staff would say
no, if we do this, our jobs are at risk.