IFSRA plans campaign to help SSIA account holders

The financial regulator, IFSRA, has announced that it is planning a New Year campaign to help people make informed choices on what to do when their Special Saving Incentive Scheme accounts mature.

Financial institutions are already vying for the business of account holders.

The first batch of SSIAs will mature next May and people are being encouraged to consider future investment options carefully.

Mary O'Dea, a spokesperson for the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority, said today that they also need to make sure the banks are ready for SSIA D-day: “The kind of thing that we would be particularly looking toward financial institutions for, would be to look at what procedures they have in place to make sure that they will be able to efficiently manage the account maturing process.

“There will obviously be a lot of accounts maturing at around the same time, so each institution must have the capacity and resources to handle that large volume of accounts between may next year and May 2007.”