FF calls for banks to be punished as showdown with Paschal looms
FIANNA Fáil will table a Dáil motion next week calling on the Government to consider imposing sanctions on banks that fail to properly compensate customers unfairly knocked off their tracker mortgage.
The motion, which will be heard on Wednesday, also calls for the Government to consider voting against the reappointment of the entire board of directors at banks where the State is a shareholder.
It further calls for the introduction of legislation that would cease all repossession proceedings on all tracker-related mortgages until all affected customers were redressed and compensated.
The bill will also seek the introduction of legislation that would enable class-action suits against lenders, and for the Government ‘to further consider introducing legislation that would make senior decision makers and directors personally liable for decisions made under their remit that have directly led to wrongdoings’.
The motion comes as sources close to the Taoiseach warned he is ready to impose levies on the banks if those involved in the tracker mortgage scandal don’t respond positively during next week’s showdown with Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe.
This would have a ‘downside’ of devaluing the State’s shareholding in the banks, the source acknowledged.
Mr Donohoe warned yesterday that he will publicly outline what options he may be forced to take after he has met with the banking bosses on Monday.
AIB, Bank of Ireland, KBC, Ulster Bank and Permanent TSB will all be hauled before the minister in different meetings between Monday and Wednesday.
A source said last night that Mr Donohoe will support the Central Bank in its aim to ensure that all redress payments are set up by the end of the year. Furthermore, the minister believes that the customers who have been identified by the Central Bank as being potentially affected should be included in the redress scheme if the Central Bank says so – regardless of any objections some banks might have.
The minister said: ‘These are our citizens who’ve lost money... after all the support the taxpayer has made available to it – it’s not right and it’s not acceptable,’ he said.
Asked if the Central Bank required more legislative powers to put pressure on banks to urgently compensate affected customers, he said: ‘Legal change cannot deal with retrospective matters – it can only deal with challenges that we have now and ones that are developing.’
Meanwhile, an official Garda investigation into the scandal has yet to be launched, senior sources have said.