8 January 2017
By Mary Bermingham
mary@TheCork.ie
Central Bank confirmation a welcome relief for some customers
The Central Bank of Ireland has confirmed to Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Finance Michael McGrath (Cork South Central TD) that customers who took out their mortgage prior to 2006 are included in the Tracker Mortgage Examination.
Carrigaline TD Michael McGrath
Deputy McGrath commented, “In recent months, a number of mortgage holders who took out their home loans prior to 2006 contacted me after being informed by their lender that they were outside the scope of the Tracker Mortgage Examination and were therefore not impacted by the scandal.
“In particular, certain customers of AIB who took out their mortgage pre April 2006 were informed they were not deemed impacted by the tracker issue because their mortgage contract pre-dated changes that the bank made to the standard mortgage contract early in 2006.
“This decision has left customers feeling cheated and powerless to do anything about it. The ambiguity even left people wondering if these mortgages were incorporated in the Central Bank’s Tracker Mortgage examination.
“I wrote to the Director General for Financial Conduct in the Central Bank, Ms Derville Rowland, to seek clarification of the issue and she has now confirmed that relevant mortgages entered into before 31 December 2015 are in scope for the examination. This confirms that the pre 2006 AIB mortgages and indeed pre 2006 mortgages relating to other banks are incorporated in the Central Bank’s examination.
“Fianna Fáil believes that customers affected by this tracker scandal have been treated disgracefully by their banks and we will continue to apply political pressure on the banks, government and the Central Bank until this issue is resolved satisfactorily and most importantly, fairly”, concluded McGrath.
