Financial products cost claims

IRISH consumers could be paying as much as €2,000 more than necessary every year on financial products such as mortgages, loans and insurance.

This claim was made yesterday by Fine Gael finance spokesperson Richard Bruton, who also claimed that banks and financial institutions here are making a potential €800 million on the back of what he calls "soft target" customers.

Mr Bruton based his claims on a comparison between the cheapest and most expensive prices on the market.

"For basic financial products there are massive divergences in prices with many customers effectively paying over the odds for the services they buy. For the personal consumer, the excess annual cost can be as much as €690 on a mortgage, €330 on a modest term loan and €750 on insurance be it life, motor, mortgage or home," he said.

Mr Bruton added: "The extra profit earned by those companies quoting at the high end could easily reach €800m per annum. Such profits imply that we still have a long way to go before having a totally competitive financial sector."

However, spokesman for the Irish Bankers Federation, however, Felix O'Regan said: "We utterly reject Mr Bruton's assertions. The price range and price differentiation that he talks about are the very reason we have a high level of competition."