Central Bank ‘enabled tracker scandal’

CENTRAL Bank Governor Philip Lane was bluntly told yesterday that his institution should hold itself responsible for helping to enable the tracker mortgage scandal.

Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness, chairman of the Dáil Finance committee, told him: ‘I hope you have a big mirror down there that you will look into.’

He criticised Mr Lane’s statement that the bank had ‘hauled in’ lenders to account for themselves, and said the Central Bank had been dragged into a new pledge to hold individuals within the banks accountable for malpractice.

Mr McGuinness hit out at a claim that the Central Bank had been ‘active since autumn 2008’ on tracker mortgages, with it now being revealed that 33,700 customers have been ‘robbed’ by their lenders. The banks now face a compensation bill of €1billion.

In his opening statement, Mr Lane declared: ‘More will follow, as the remainder of the 33,700 customers that were denied tracker products or charged the wrong rates receive redress and compensation.’ Of the initial group of 13,000 mistreated customers accepted by lenders up to the end of last September, three-quarters had now received their redress and compensation, he said.

Finance expert Pádraic Kissane, a longterm crusader on tracker mortgages, predicted yesterday that 4,000 further cases could yet emerge, with alleged clusters in EBS, First Active and KBC.