Central Bank slow to recognise banking’s rotten culture
FOR an institution that mints our money the penny is very slow to drop at the Central Bank.
Ten years after the banking collapse, it has only now produced a report looking at the rotten culture in our banks. These are the institutions that have wreaked havoc on the economy.
The tracker rip-off is the most damning indictment of our banking culture. And it happened after the economic crash. But it joins a list that includes the near-collapse of the sector, variable mortgage rate overcharging, and payment protection insurance misselling, to mention just some of the worst examples.
This newspaper has been writing about the tracker denial issue since 2009. The Central Bank displayed a marked reluctance to see the significance of the tracker confidence trick until 2015, when all the main lenders were told to examine their mortgage books for evidence of tracker chicanery. But even then the Central Bank failed to grasp the gravity of the situation.
It took the intervention of Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, in dragging the main lenders into his office last year, to make the penny drop for the Central Bank about the seriousness of the issue. And Mr Donohoe had to tell the Central Bank to conduct a review of banking culture.
Why oh why the Central Bank did not do that itself years ago is a mystery.
Senior regulators did not share the revulsion of the general populace at banking conduct and culture.
We were promised intrusive regulation of the banks soon after the crash, but only now is that materialising. So let’s hope the Central Bank does not expect anyone to praise it for finally doing its job.