AIB We have won the Prevailing Rate issue

Amazing result Brendan. Fair play to yourself, Padraig Kissane, and any of the complainants since the start of this.

You made a great point on another thread that most people wouldn't have even been aware of this until the original letter came out in 2018. I know we scratched our head at the time, and there has been a fair amount of retrospective indignation since but maybe that was just hope.

Going back to when our mortgage fixed rate ended after year 1, we would have taken the bank at their word in that Trackers weren't available and we weren't entitled (despite the clause). Thinking back, I guess we put up no fight which is on us. The country was in turmoil though.

There is no way we will count our chickens on this, if we are lucky enough to see the benefit from it, then we will feel very lucky and grateful. There is nothing particularly unique about us, we are just a normal couple/family struggling with juggling the normal stresses of life. Anything would be hugely helpful.

A simple thanks to those who took on the system and won would seem silly, but to get this result for potentially up to 6,000 families is mind boggling. I hope that personally Brendan, you take great satisfaction in this result and the good it will do, and the hope it will give others in other banks, not withstanding that every case is different.

Incidentally, and this I find funny, yesterday we received our latest letter from BDO saying our case is still with the panel for deliberations etc. Thanks for your patience, we will get back asap etc etc etc. Surely now though, in circumstances post what AIB have done this week in providing against the additional cost, the panel are going to have to start upholding appeals!
 
"Incidentally, and this I find funny, yesterday we received our latest letter from BDO saying our case is still with the panel for deliberations etc. Thanks for your patience, we will get back asap etc etc etc. Surely now though, in circumstances post what AIB have done this week in providing against the additional cost, the panel are going to have to start upholding appeals! "

Funny, we got the BDO letter on Tuesday, the day the preliminary judgement came out saying we were unsuccessful.
 

THe BDO system will just continue to work away as normal in the background, same as me getting put on a fixed rate yesterday as per my recent request even though now i will be most likely moved to tracker
 
THe BDO system will just continue to work away as normal in the background, same as me getting put on a fixed rate yesterday as per my recent request even though now i will be most likely moved to tracker

I would think there are hundreds of people who are not even aware of the prevailing rate issue still going on , thye just cashed the cheque and moved on. They might get a shock when they get the letter from AIB in a few months time
 
How is the redress actually handled do they calculate what the repayments and interest should of been and correct the account and issue a refund for the difference/over payment?
 
Incidentally, and this I find funny, yesterday we received our latest letter from BDO saying our case is still with the panel for deliberations etc.

Thanks for you kind comments.

That is very funny. Though it's not quite as funny as Emlyn C having her appeal rejected.

The right thing to do is to say "In the light of the AIB announcement, we are suspending the processing of all appeals"

Brendan
 
LOL, his appeal rejected
 
No public listed company would set aside the money and then appeal after scaring the investors, that would be the awful management.

If I can idly speculate on the above, I would suggest AIB have a better idea of the specific costs potentially per appeal under this cohort and could turn it around a little quicker than expected.

From a boring accounting standpoint, as it going into their 2019 results, and given the huge size of the provision, an auditor would/should request detailed backup on the provision. Also auditors tend to want to see accruals and the like cleared in a reasonable time frame post year end. Otherwise they could be held indefinitely and reduce current tax paid (if AIB paid tax(!), it will come back around eventually that they will).

Given that AIB have to get their 2019 Group financial statements over the line, they probably should be able to pull this information reasonably quickly. It is possible that they never truly believed their argument and could have worse case scenario pay-outs prepared per case. To be honest, I think there should be plenty of matrixes from a regulatory perspective that could have been prepared for this by the bank since they have to have detailed capital measurements and reviews.

This provision would/should alarm the CBI in terms of capital planning so they probably would push it along also.

Also the shareholder (the state) should want this resolved quickly. I don't know if Pascal passed any comment on this, I know Pearse Doherty and Michael McGrath have via twitter at least. Those two politicians deserve credit also as part of the wider story, plus journalists like Charlie Weston for keeping it in the public eye. There have been a lot of people that have been on the side of the consumer implicitly or explicitly over time.

The Ombudsman has marked the card of the banks as well, which is in truth is a very brave thing to do.

Lots of ifs and buts and wishful thinking above.

I wonder what that director of KBC (I think) from the other week saying everyone should move on from the tracker scandal is feeling after this week!
 
Thanks so much to Brendan and the others who kept this issue going for the last number of years . It will mean so much to 6000 families - there's few people in life who can say in their work that they have improved the lot of 25000+ people but ye can .

Like so many others i would have most likely have given up after having my appeal was rejected . Brendan's encouragement on this forum to keep going and his endless patience meant that I and many more didn't throw the towel in . For that i will be forever grateful .
For now lets hope there are no more twists and turn in this long road !!
 
Last edited:
A huge thank you Brendan. I started investigating the tracker issue way back in 2012 and came across the thread in which Harvest Moon got their tracker back from AIB - my case was very similar and with the help of the advice and wording from this site, I got our AIB tracker back on half my mortgage in 2014. I'm one of the 6,000 for the other half of my mortgage - I just missed getting my name in the hat to put my €1600 towards legal advice last year and my case is with BDO at the moment.

I cycle past AIB's office on Harcourt street every day and their 'customer first' charter on the wall makes me want to scream. I honestly can't believe this week's news. I've been battling with AIB since 2014. We are hugely indebted to you and your generosity in sharing information, answering questions and supporting us for so many years now.

I hope you're enjoying every second of this victory, you deserve it. I wonder who'll play you in the movie? Little guy takes on big banks - writes itself
 
i just wanted to say a big thank you to Brendan for your efforts. We have been following your advice closely for the last two years when communicating with the appeals panel. We really appreciate it
 
Took out a mortgage in Feb 2009. Was on a fixed rate until 2012. Recieved a cheque in 2018 but still cannot believe it's real.

Will see if/ when AIB send a letter!!!!
 
Brendan, like everyone else here, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to you for all of your hard work on our behalf. Without your guidance regarding next steps and templates etc. we would not have known where to start with our appeal. You should take great satisfaction in the fact that your direct input has helped so many families. There seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel at last. Thank you again!
 
I’m not surprised this has been nothing but a stock exchange notice with no other statement. I think this will be hitting AIB far harder than most can imagine. This will have delivered a significant blow to managements attempts to lower cost targets and headcount not to mention the possibility of variable pay for any staff. Much of their planning for the next 12-18 months will be up in flames.

The 100’s of staff working on AIBs project dawn team were all expecting to roll off into normalised rolls which will allow AIB to roll out planned redundancy. This now can’t happen and they will need large numbers of internal staff in addition to contractors to get through the administrative nightmare of 6000 more cases. Of course there will be plenty of straightforward cases but there will be:

- People who had a home repossessed as they had a higher rate
- Those who sold or re-mortgaged due to the rate they had
- Those who feel the mental anguish of everything deserves additional compensation
- People who still want to go to the FSPO (or the discredited appeals panel) based on case specifics

There will literally be scores of people dealing with this over the next year or two and this will be catastrophic for AIB senior management and many staff who will forced to work in a miserable thankless project. And in addition there will be more entirely different cases now being launched towards the panel and the FSPO.

AIB has a long and winding road ahead.
 
I received an email from the FSPO this morning to say that due to a backlog of cases it would be 16 weeks before our appeal was assigned a dispute resolution officer. Hopefully events will overtake this timeline.