METRO EDITION IRELAND’SBEST-SELLINGDAILYNEWSPAPER www.independent.ie Tuesday 24 October 2017 €2.00 (£1.30 in Northern Ireland) C Racingmove putsZebo’s Irelandcareerindoubt FARMING:BRUSSELSPROPOSESLIMITSONCAPPAYMENTS Now banks owe tracker scam victims over €1bn n 7,000 customers are ‘still in the dark’ Charlie Weston meet the chief executive of AIB and Kevin Doyle this week. Mr Donohoe is due to issue THE tracker mortgage scandal a statement confirming he has is set to cost the banks €1bn. broad agreement from the main Banks have already put aside lenders to speed up the redress €600m to cover the cost of the scheme, once he has met all the overcharging after they refused banks. However, this deadline to allow customers who had is expected to be challenging been on fixed rates to return to for both KBC and Bank of Ire- their good-value trackers. land as they are understood However, the leading expert to be behind in their efforts on the tracker scam, Padraic to identify affected customers Kissane, said the final bill will and the amounts of money to be at least €1bn as new cases be refunded. are emerging every day. Sources say Mr Donohoe told Mr Kissane said the overall bank bosses he believes they number of affected customers have been “dragging their feet is likely to be well over 30,000, in solving the problem, at real far in excess of the 20,000 cases human cost”. already disclosed. At last night’s Cabinet meet- The bosses of Bank of Ireland, ing, Mr Donohoe told ministers Permanent TSB and KBC were as many as 7,000 bank custom- hauled before Finance Minister ers affected by the scandal are Paschal Donohoe yesterday. He “still in the dark” about it. will meet the head of Ulster Bank today and is expected to Report and analysis, P4&5 Flu fears as two hospitalised TWO people have already been hospitalised with flu this month while two outbreaks have occurred in residential facilities. One of the patients hospitalised was found to have the A(H3N2) strain that caused one of Australia’s worst winters for flu in years. It follows revelations in the Irish Independent that this year’s flu vaccine is just 40pc to 60pc effective. The fear is that it will be least effective in older people who are most at risk because of their weakened immune response to the vaccine. Carjack rampage This is the dramatic moment armed gardaí arrested a man at Citywest Shopping Centre in Dublin after a chase around the city that followed the hijacking of six cars and a domestic Full report, page 12 lasted eight hours incident in Tallaght. Photo: Colin Keegan/Collins. FULL REPORTS, Pages 6&7 Recommended retail price of the Irish Independent in ROI is €2.00 (£1.30 in Northern Ireland) Vol. 126 No. 254 Irish Independent 4 Tuesday 24 October 2017 Irish Independent News Tracker scandal > Kid gloves won’t teach our bankers – they need some tough love – COLETTE BROWNE p21 Tracker mortgage scam is lik Charlie Weston A leading expert on the track- Banks have already put aside There was a broad consen- could get refunds by Christmas. THOUSANDS Personal Finance Editor er scam said lenders were refus- €600m to cover the cost of the sus among ministers that the But banks were holding out ing to agree to return trackers overcharging. banks must accelerate the rate on a similar number of custom- AWAITREFUNDS THE tracker mortgage scandal to as many as 13,000 people. At last night’s Cabinet meet- of compensation. ers they insisted were not due is set to cost banks €1bn. Financial adviser Padraic ing, Finance Minister Paschal The scale of the scam was refunds, Mr Kissane said. AIB The higher cost comes as tens Kissane has 52 cases ready to Donohoe told ministers as exposed as Central Bank Gov- Mr Kissane, who has been The State’s largest bank, of thousands of homeowners go to the High Court. many as 7,000 bank customers ernor Philip Lane insisted that chasing banks for six years to which also owns EBS, has an are being denied the return of He estimates the total cost affected by the scandal are regulators were not ignoring get them to give mortgage hold- estimated 3,200 cases. Of a tracker mortgage and refunds to the banks of the tracker rip- “still in the dark”. He said he their consumer protection role. ers their trackers back, said the these, 2,900 mortgage holders as banks dig their heels in and off will be at least €1bn, due to wants the banks to speed up the He said most of the 13,000 scale of the rip-off was far larger have been put back on a tracker refuse to return them to the the additional cases emerging process of identifying these cus- account holders that banks have than appreciated up to now. rate, and paid refunds for being good-value rates. every day. tomers so they can be notified. now admitted were overcharged A review ordered by the Cen- overcharged interest for years and received compensation, the lender says. The bank is paying compensation of 15pc of the overcharged amount for homeowners, and 7.5pc for THETRACKERSCANDAL: those with investor mortgages. Lenders to Some 14 people lost homes. HOWDIDWEGETHERE? Bank of Ireland The lender restored 2,100 customers to tracker rates in outline how How did the tracker this figure will increase 2010. It has another 4,518 mortgage scandal come dramatically with some cases at present. Some 600 to light? estimates suggesting the final of these are due to people It has been known for number of people affected will being wrongly denied a tracker. many years that there were be 30,000. Another 3,916 customers were cash will be problems regarding how banks on the wrong tracker rate. No treated tracker mortgage What’s the big problem? refunds or compensation have customers. In recent years tracker been paid, according to Fianna The issue started to get mortgages were substantially Fáil’s Michael McGrath, based more attention in 2015 when cheaper than variable-rate on evidence given by the bank paid back it was reported that at least mortgages – but banks refused to the Oireachtas Finance 7,100 mortgage accounts to allow customers who were Committee. BoI will not say were affected. At that stage, contractually entitled to be what percentage of any refunds the Central Bank launched an on the tracker rates to avail it will pay in compensation. The Charlie Weston with the minister and we lis- industry-wide examination of them. As a result, those lender is facing Central Bank and Kevin Doyle tened very carefully to what of tracker mortgage-related affected paid out thousands enforcement action over its the minister had to say and his issues. more in interest than they handling of the scandal. BANKS at the centre of the concerns. should have. tracker mortgage scandal are “We are treating this matter What are the latest KBC expected to issue a statement very seriously and we’ll be mak- figures? Have people lost their The lender is refusing to tell outlining their plans for paying ing a statement in due course.” At the end of last month the homes? TDs or the media how many compensation in the coming After leaving the meeting, Central Bank said around Yes. To date it has been tracker-loss cases it has. days. KBC Bank chief executive Wim 13,000 customers were reported that customers lost KBC is facing Central Bank It is understood the institu- Verbraeken said the minister wrongly denied access to a ownership of 102 properties as enforcement action over its tions hauled before Finance had conveyed the Government’s tracker mortgage. However, a result of being denied their handling of the scandal. Minister Paschal Donohoe have grave concerns. He said the it is widely expected that tracker mortgage rate. This agreed to issue separate state- bank would make a full state- Ulster Bank ments confirming the ‘next ment later this week. The lender told the Oireachtas steps’ to paying the majority of Permanent TSB did not com- Finance Committee recently it people affected before Christ- ment on its meeting. has 3,500 cases, up from 2,000. mas. Banks are understood to have Just 40 mortgage holders Mr Donohoe is also due to explained to Mr Donohoe that Central Bank has failed to protect consumers, so it should relinquish role have received refunds. It is issue a statement confirming he it is a massive task to work out planning to pay compensation has broad agreement from the the extent of overcharging on of between 12pc and 20pc of main lenders to speed up the each individual account where the overcharged amount. redress scheme, after he meets a tracker product should have T IS high time the Now it is beginning to The lender is facing Central Ulster Bank and AIB. been in place. Central Bank had its Charlie dawn on large numbers of Bank enforcement action over However, this deadline is Each mortgage account has consumer protection people that the Central Bank its handling of the scandal. expected to be challenging for to be reconstituted as if there role removed from it. Weston has been woefully inadequate both KBC and Bank of Ireland was a tracker rate in place I The Central Bank in its handling of the tracker Permanent TSB as they are understood to be once the holder had come off repeatedly sells consumers Personal Finance theft perpetrated by the Some 1,370 mortgage behind in their efforts to iden- a fixed rate.