5,000 MORE MORTGAGES HIT BY TRACKER SCANDAL

Financial adviser in call for action

AT least 5,000 more mortgage holders could be caught up in the tracker scandal, it has been revealed.

Financial adviser Padraic Kissane said there could be thousands who have not yet had their issues dealt with and returned to the cheaper European Central Bank rate.

He told the Oireachtas: “It raises the question: Are the relevant lenders sorry for these customers or apologetic for their actions? Or are these lenders glad that, to date, each has not been forced to fully correct the position in relation to these accounts?”

Mr Kissane also discussed the impact of the financial stress placed on mortgage holders on their daily lives.

He said: “The tentacles of this octopus spread everywhere. If someone comes to your wallet, your purse, your bag every month for seven years and takes €400 out of it, which is the average overcharge, at what point does it get in on you? And that is what happened.”

Those affected have mortgages with EBS Homeowners, First Active and KBC Bank Ireland as well as some staff mortgages in Bank of Ireland and AIB.

The new figures are not included in the 33,700 cases which have already been identified by the European Central Bank.

The mortgage tracker rate scandal is estimated to be costing the banks €900million.