Higher compensation granted in appeals of over 1,000 tracker mortgage cases

Banks have been accused of short-changing tracker mortgage victims by at least €7m after it emerged financial institutions have paid additional money to more than 1,000 people after their initial compensation offers were appealed.

New figures show more than half of appeals of compensation offers to people caught up in the scandal have been upheld to date.

In recent months, banks have repeatedly said they are taking steps to fully compensate people affected by the tracker crisis, claiming they are actively trying to help people who have been impacted by what happened.

However, the Department of Finance figures show 3,300 customers appealed the composition figure they were offered because they were not happy.

And of these 1,800 cases, more than 1,000 have been either fully or partially upheld, resulting in banks’ appeals panels being forced to pay out an extra €7m — an average of €7,000 for each affected person.

“The Central Bank’s final Tracker Examination Framework report states that 3,300 customers had appealed to their lenders the original compensation offer they received. This represents 10% of customers who have received payment.

“[To date] 1,800 appeal outcomes have been decided upon by appeals panels. Of the 1,800 appeals decided, 55% have been upheld/partially upheld and 45% have not been upheld.

“The various banks appeals panels have awarded €7m additional compensation to affected customers,” the department said in a parliamentary question response to Fianna Fáil finance spokesperson Michael McGrath.

The department also said that, as of the start of July, 1,141 people have made formal complaints to the financial services pensions ombudsman over alleged bank failures in properly addressing their tracker mortgage cases, with concerns the situation could see a surge in further pay-outs over the coming months.

Fianna Fáil finance spokesperson Michael McGrath said it is “striking” more than half of the compensation appeals submitted by customers have been upheld.

“It seems in many cases the appeals panel decided to increase the amount of compensation to the customer.

“It may be that this was as a result of additional information being provided during the appeals process, but it does raise questions about how the cases were handled by the banks themselves under the tracker redress programme.

Mr McGrath also suggested the Central Bank had shut the tracker examination prematurely.

“In light of the fact that some 1,500 appeals have yet to be decided, in addition to the 1,141 cases currently with the ombudsman and with the certainty that many more appeals and complaints will be lodged, I really feel the Central Bank shut down the tracker mortgage examination prematurely.”

“There are far too many outstanding issues for the Central Bank to believe its job is done,” he said.

Sinn Féin finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty said there was a need for urgent action to ensure affected customers are fully compensated over what happened.

More than 40,000 customers have been caught up in the tracker mortgage scandal up to the end of June.

Lenders have paid out €683m in refunds and compensation to date for 98% of affected accounts. AIB, the country’s largest mortgage lender, has the highest number of tracker cases on its books at 12,180, followed by Bank of Ireland with 9,730