Overcharging errors not released to media

Saturday, July 04, 2009

A REPORT from the Financial Regulator found that Ireland’s banks and insurers are largely compliant with the rules governing how complaints about overcharging are dealt with.

However, it found that firms, while dealing with individual cases on a personal basis, were reluctant to bring charging errors to public attention through the media.

The financial watchdog asked firms to consider the information that should be provided to the media on errors, which may vary depending on the nature of error but which should include at a minimum the total monetary amount of the error and the number of customers who are impacted upon.

The Regulator said it is better in the long term for institutions to proactively bring issues to the attention of the media, rather than wait for them to come into the public domain.

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Saturday, July 04, 2009