KBC says extra 661 people affected by tracker mortgage scandal – but only for a ‘short time’

KBC Bank Ireland has identified 661 extra cases of people wrongly denied tracker mortgages.

The bank said all were now on trackers and it apologised for the mistake.

Chief executive Wim Verbraeken told the Irish

Independent the people in question had been denied a tracker for only a short time.

“The impact we are now recognising is for a relatively short period 10 years ago when these customers were not on their tracker rate,” he said. He said the cases had been identified after the bank went through its records to make sure it had correctly identified all those affected.

It now has a total of 3,737 affected customers.

People involved in the new cases were to receive redress by the end of March, and all those involved in the older cases had received redress and compensation, KBC said.

The bank has been hit by a spate of attacks on its branches in recent times.

A couple of years ago, it was considering whether to pull out of the Irish market but ultimately decided to stay.

KBC said yesterday it was “committed to its business in Ireland and ... determined to be a positive force for choice in the market”.

In December, the bank hit headlines when it moved to repossess a farm in Strokestown, Co Roscommon, in a highprofile case that attracted controversy.