Worst ever bank scam
Campaigner blasts lenders over tracker mortgages scandal
THE tracker scandal was the worst scam ever perpetrated by a bank, ireland’s top mortgage campaigner claimed yesterday. David Hall insists lenders here conspired in the “largest financial consumer rip-off ever”. The Irish Mortgage Holders Association chief said the scandal is much worse than is being reported and may involve more than 45,000 people. He added: “Banks talk about mortgages, it dehumanises; the number of people involved – 13,000 is upwards of 45,000 people directly affected. It’s important to put that in context. “This is outrageous carry-on, outrageous behaviour, overseen by a regulator who is completely impotent in relation to dealing with this matter. “We now need to separate finally the consumer protection which is the statutory responsibility of the Central Bank away from supervision of banks.” And he claimed it looked very odd that up to 15 banks were involved in the same shady practices at the same time. He told Pat Kenny’s Newstalk show: “It was a miracle so many lenders terminated a tracker product at the same time and all interpreted their tracker documents as being exactly the same legal definition.
Bosses
“No doubt there was collusion. It is beyond any reasonable doubt that, or beyond any belief by any logical sensible person, that such a massive cover-up could have just happened.” Following Leo Varadkar’s announcement that bank bosses will meet the Finance Minister next Monday, Mr Hall tweeted: “This is actually laughable. Public outcry = mouthing by Government. Silence for years while customers robbed and tortured. Crocodile tears.” Adding in another tweet: “Wow what a dramatic move . Very little very late.” Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday the cost of tracker mortgage scandal may reach €500million as some banks have still not come clean about the true number of loans affected. The Financial Services Ombudsman has urged those forced off their tracker mortgages to wait for the Central Bank review to finish leading to accusations he is being soft on lenders. Ombudsman Ger Deering has asked those who were moved to a less favourable loan to work through the ongoing process. He said: “I do appreciate it is taking time and that it is frustrating and very difficult for people. But the best (and fastest) way of getting an outcome to this is to work through the Central Bank process. “If at that stage they’re not happy with has come out of that process, then they can come to us with a complaint.”
This is outrageous carry-on. Overseen by a regulator who is impotent in this matter DAVID HALL IRISH MORTGAGE HOLDERS ASSOCIATION CHIEF