Tracker row flares as S&P focuses on loan sales

The Central Bank has defended its probe into the €1bn industry-wide tracker mortgage scandal, saying the recent addition of 4,000 AIB customers came about directly as a result of its intervention, writes Eamon Quinn and Geoff Percival.

AIB added 4,000 customers who weren’t offered a switch to a tracker mortgage when their fixed-rate loan expired to its own redress scheme in December. They were offered a 7.9% prevailing tracker rate as well as compensation. An AIB spokesman said the new rate included the average ECB rate of 1.1% plus an average margin of 6.8% and meant customers had suffered no financial loss.