FF: Errant lenders should be named

FINANCIAL service providers such as banks, stockbrokers, savings institutions or lenders should be named and shamed if complaints are made against them, according to Fianna Fáil.

The party has published a Bill which it hopes will be debated in the Dáil, giving powers to the Financial Ombudsman to publish and report on all complaints, investigations and judgements.

Individual service providers are not identified in the twice yearly reviews on investigations by the Ombudsman’s office which received 7,200 complaints in 2010 — a figure expected to be exceeded in 2011.

In July, the Ombudsman initiated a public consultation on the publication of information on complaints about financial service providers, pointing out that doing so would need a change of legislation.

Fianna Fáil’s spokesman on finance Michael McGrath said he would be publishing a Bill that “seeks to achieve the transparency that is so manifestly in the public interest”. He said such laws, if accepted, would motivate companies to “clean up their act” and improve services for consumers.

The Cork South Central TD said the country had learned at enormous cost that it was “unwise” to rely on financial institutions to provide information on their performance.

“We need to ensure that the public has access to accurate information about how financial service providers are treating customers and how they behave when their shortcomings are pointed out,” he said.

It’s vital that public confidence in the financial system is restored and “greater transparency about the performance and behaviour of individual institutions is a basic pre-requisite to achieve this”. Fianna Fáil has urged the Government parties and Finance Minister Micheal Noonan to “put aside politics-as-usual” and accept the Bill when the Dáil resumes in January.

“Transparency and improved customer accountability are not party political issues,” said Mr McGrath.

“If the Government is serious about welcoming constructive opposition, they will take forward and enact this straightforward piece of legislation without delay.”