The Central Bank of Ireland has provided me with the following information on the matter:
The Central Bank continues to monitor the outcomes of any complaints, appeals and court cases through information reported by lenders to the Central Bank on a periodic basis on such outcomes including any settlements. The Central Bank has also clearly communicated to lenders its expectation that if any individual outcomes arise that have the potential to impact customers more widely, they then must address this broader impact and inform the Central Bank accordingly. Through this monitoring, the Central Bank has ensured that if settlements arise that have a broader impact for other customers, lenders provide the same benefit to similarly affected customers.
As an example of the approach adopted by the Central Bank, I would refer to the Tracker Mortgage Investigation (TME) and the follow-up that has occurred since that investigation.
The aim of the TME was to put in place a framework that ensured lenders identified and put impacted customers back in the position they would have been in if the lenders’ failings had not occurred, as promptly as possible.
The TME was specifically designed by the Central Bank to ensure that the interests of affected customers were prioritised and protected and included:
• Stopping the harm for potentially affected customers by requiring lenders to cease ongoing proceedings against affected customers;
• Providing for the payment of redress and compensation to put customers back in the position they would have been in if the lenders’ failings had not occurred;
• Ensuring that there was a robust independent appeals process for customers who were not satisfied with their offers of redress and compensation, which protected that offer of redress notwithstanding the appeal.
• Ensuring that customers had further access to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (FSPO), and that normal limitation periods would not be enforced by the lenders; and
• Requiring lenders to assess and apply individual outcomes from the FSPO and the courts where those decisions had a wider beneficial impact for other customers.
The TME was designed so that after affected customers received redress and compensation, they continued to have options to appeal to their lenders’ independent appeals process, to the FSPO and the courts to raise their own individual personal circumstances.
The Examination involved an initial review of more than two million mortgage accounts by lenders to identify the number of in-scope accounts. From the outset, the Central Bank focused on a system wide response to lenders' failures and to ensuring that lenders identified and remediated the detriment they had caused to affected customers as promptly as possible.
While the Central Bank is satisfied that, from a supervisory and legal perspective, it has worked to the limit of its mandate to ensure that where grounds were sufficiently clear and impact was established, all relevant groups have been included, we are aware there is a possibility that individual customer-specific issues may be identified through complaints to lenders and to the FSPO, appeals and court cases.
