‘Lying banks drove people to suicide’
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DESPERATE home-buyers killed themselves after greedy banks refused their right to low-cost tracker mortgages, it was claimed yesterday. Harrowing details of the impact the scandal has had on ordinary people’s lives were laid bare in the Oireachtas finance committee. At least 30,000 borrowers and their families have been affected by the multimillion euro overcharging as 15 banks ignored their obligation to give customers the lowest interest rate in the market. Four brave customers who were overcharged on their mortgages by Ulster Bank, PTSB and the EBS waived their right to anonymity to tell their stories in Leinster House. They included Thomas Ryan, who eventually won a High Court challenge against PTSB over his case despite he and his family suffering greatly during the ordeal. He said it was “an absolute disgrace” how the banks had treated his family and thousands of others. Mr Ryan, from Co Wexford, had a stroke at the relatively young age of 48 in 2013 at the height of his struggle. His wife Claire suffered a nervous breakdown two years later and lost the ability to speak. Mr Ryan said he lost his “bubbly, confident” wife and their teenage children also suffered. He said: “The bank repeatedly covered-up, lied, deceived. “It is absolutely appalling – they have destroyed lives all over this country. There are people no longer with us over this, they have committed suicide and [the banks] don’t particularly give a damn. “I have heard some of the submissions here in the last few weeks from some of the banks – it is an absolute disgrace, the generic, legalistic garbage they are churning out. “It is appalling and an absolute disgrace. There are no other words for it. And the redress scheme in place is a joke.” Niamh Byrne has already experienced suicide in her own family and because of this history she said she has been “quite careful with her mental health” during her stressful dealings with her bank. Ms Byrne, who is in her 30s, has a Masters degree in economics yet she still could not beat the bank on her own.
Helen Grogan is close to retirement and told of her fear at still having years left on her mortgage. She said she will have overpaid in the region of €70,000 on her tracker mortgage because of her bank’s “trickery”. Ms Grogan added: “I cannot properly express the rage and anger I feel after having been duped by the bank like this.” Hazel Melbourne had to wait six years before her bank – PTSB again – admitted overcharging her thousands on her mortgage. She said her experience at the hands of what she views as part of “a great cartel” was “devastating, heartbreaking and totally unacceptable”. Financial advisor Padraic Kissane is taking on the banks on behalf of the mortgage holders. He described the bank customers with him at the committee meeting as “good, hard-working, decent people”. He said what the banks had engaged in amounted to “financial deceit on a grand scale”. Mr Kissane added: “I want to personally thank the bravery of the four people because I know how difficult it is to come out publicly on this matter. “But to come out and speak about your own personal account…. people don’t cry deliberately in my office, they cry for a reason. We’re asking on behalf of the thousands – and the numbers are continuing to grow, the children and families – who the hell did they [the banks] think they were?” Scores of people have been put out of their homes over the past eight years after being refused their entitlement to a tracker mortgage. The Central Bank previously put the number of directly-related repossessions at 100. It also previously estimated up to 15,000 borrowers were affected by the issue across 15 lenders and is due to update the committee next week. Mr Kissane has now put this figure at 30,000 as more and more people step forward every week and the banks continually have to increase their own estimates as they are being caught out. Last week Ulster Bank said it will have to pay more than €100,000 to some of its 3,500 customers caught up in the industry-wide overcharging scandal. Previously it was revealed that 2,100 Bank of Ireland mortgages were restored to tracker rates when the issue was identified in 2010 and 2011. There were also about 1,400 cases of customers being denied tracker rates involving Springboard Mortgages, which was a subsidiary of PTSB. The Central Bank cannot force banks to compensate home owners for tracker issues before 2013. The refusal of banks to allow customers to move on to trackers first emerged as far back as 2010 – the year taxpayers were lumbered with a multibillion-euro bailout of Ireland’s banks.
THE pressure banks piled on cashstrapped families did not just push them to the brink, it pushed some over the edge. Banks illegally forced mortgage holders on to higher interest rates, in a move that led some to suicide. The harrowing reality of how this whitecollar crime destroyed ordinary workers’ lives is only coming to light this week. Victims of the tracker mortgage scandal outlined to the Oireachtas Finance Committee the dire straits they found themselves in. For the first time, we are using the term “victim”. If a homeowner is burgled they are described as a victim of crime. Just because it was bankers in suits who imposed these changes, does not mean the crime is any less. Mortgage holders suffered immeasurable financial strain through no fault of their own. It is now accepted they should never have been taken off the lower interest rate, but the financial institutions are still shrugging their shoulders at the suggestion that they are to blame for the fallout. Thomas Ryan begs to differ. He was a Permanent TSB customer who successfully challenged its refusal to give him the tracker rate. During his long, fraught battle with the bank he met people in similar positions who crumbled under the strain and are “no longer with us over this”.