Bank of Ireland to be issued with major fine over tracker mortgage scandal

Kenneth Fox

Bank of Ireland will be hit with a major fine by the Central Bank tomorrow for its role in the tracker mortgage scandal.

The Irish Examiner reports that Bank of Ireland will be sanctioned for denying thousands of its customers access to cheaper tracker mortgages.

There are no details yet as to how large the fine will be, but Bank of Ireland has set aside €120 million in its accounts to settle the remaining tracker issues.

In June of this year, the Central Bank issued a record €96.7 million fine to AIB and EBS for their part in the scandal.

In March of last year, Ulster Bank was fined almost €37.8 million, in what was the largest sanction by the Central Bank into wrongdoing by the banking industry in the tracker mortgage scandal.

Permanent TSB was fined €21 million by the Central Bank and in 2020, KBC Bank Ireland was fined over €18.3 million for its part in the industry-wide scandal.

The Central Bank opened investigations six years ago into all lenders that sold the tracker home loans.

In most cases, the investigations have shown that banks had acted in remarkably similar ways, in order to deprive customers of their correct interest rates.

Many of the banks involved — Permanent TSB, AIB, Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank, and KBC Bank Ireland and their subsidiaries —have either concluded their settlements with the Central Bank, and have already paid out millions in compensation and restitution to their customers.