McGrath: Banks have to earn customers' trust

Fianna Fáil finance spokesperson Michael McGrath has called on the Irish Credit Bureau to examine all of the information it receives from banks to make sure it is accurate.

Up to 12,000 customers of the bank who missed loan repayments may have been affected by inaccurate reporting of their information to the credit bureau over a period of six years.

AIB has apologised, and has said the information has been corrected.

It is possible that some customers may have been refused loans from financial institutions on the basis of their inaccurate credit rating.

Fianna Fáil finance spokesperson Michael McGrath said correcting the misinformation was not enough, and that consumers needed to be assured this was a once-off.

"A person's credit history is critically important. We have a possible scenario now that people have been refused credit through no fault of their own," he said.

"We all want to see customer confidence restored in the banking system, but the banks are going to have to earn that trust."

He said the issue had only come to light after he came across it and put it into the public domain.

"There was no statement from AIB (before the initial revelation) and really, that isn't good enough. When a problem is identified now, the banks have to put their hands up and correct the situation."