Overcharging - Probe into rip-off by banks vital

ANYONE who ever had to look a bank manager in the eye will empathise with the report showing Irish customers are paying more for overdrafts, credit cards and unsecured personal loans than most other EU citizens.

Hard-pressed consumers who pay exorbitant rates for such facilities, can be forgiven for regarding the banks and other financial institutions as hard-hearted, Shylock-style moneylenders, grossly overcharging their customers.

Yet the only probe conducted into this scenario, a Department of Finance survey, hardly saw the light of day and is now gathering dust on a Government shelf.