Brendan Burgess
Founder
- Messages
- 53,643
As a shareholder in AIB and as a business customer, I have some questions which I have not heard answered in the RTE reports.
Was the error intentional?
It has been described as fraud and as a scandal and as a rip-off. If someone in AIB intentionally input the wrong number to increase profits, then it is fraud, a rip-off and a scandal.
This is what happened in National Irish Bank. People were intentionally charged more than the agreed rate.
How much have individual customers lost?
€18m over 8 years is insignificant in terms of AIB's overall business. But increased payments of €1000 could be a lot to any one customer.
When was the problem and the extent of the problem discovered?
There are errors made all the time. However, this was a systematic error, so when was the extent of it known?
Was it rectified immediately for ongoing business?
I can understand that it might be very difficult to sort out a backlog problem. But was the problem rectified immediately for ongoing customers? It appears to have been first noticed at "departmental level" two years ago. But what is most worrying is that they still overcharged customers by €3m last year - after discovering that there was a problem.
Was there an attempt to cover up the problem?
After intentional fraud, this is the most serious allegation.
What was the role of the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs?
The AIB spokesman on Morning Ireland seemed to suggest that the main problem was that they had notified the ODCA that their maxium rate was .5%, but that they charged customers 1%. This is a problem, but not a huge problem.
Why did the customers not notice it?
I must check my forex transactions. Did they quote .5% but calculate it at 1%? Or did they quote 1% and charge 1%?
Brendan
Was the error intentional?
It has been described as fraud and as a scandal and as a rip-off. If someone in AIB intentionally input the wrong number to increase profits, then it is fraud, a rip-off and a scandal.
This is what happened in National Irish Bank. People were intentionally charged more than the agreed rate.
How much have individual customers lost?
€18m over 8 years is insignificant in terms of AIB's overall business. But increased payments of €1000 could be a lot to any one customer.
When was the problem and the extent of the problem discovered?
There are errors made all the time. However, this was a systematic error, so when was the extent of it known?
Was it rectified immediately for ongoing business?
I can understand that it might be very difficult to sort out a backlog problem. But was the problem rectified immediately for ongoing customers? It appears to have been first noticed at "departmental level" two years ago. But what is most worrying is that they still overcharged customers by €3m last year - after discovering that there was a problem.
Was there an attempt to cover up the problem?
After intentional fraud, this is the most serious allegation.
What was the role of the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs?
The AIB spokesman on Morning Ireland seemed to suggest that the main problem was that they had notified the ODCA that their maxium rate was .5%, but that they charged customers 1%. This is a problem, but not a huge problem.
Why did the customers not notice it?
I must check my forex transactions. Did they quote .5% but calculate it at 1%? Or did they quote 1% and charge 1%?
Brendan