Tracker mortgages scandal - We never learn

It must be a relief, even if a belated, inadequate one, for the thousands of individuals or families deliberately ensnared by the banks in the tracker mortgage scandal that lenders have paid €647m in refunds or compensation to customers caught up in the swizz, which goes back more than a decade.

The air of sleaziness around the affair continues to deepen as the number of cases lenders have admitted to rose by 1,400, to 39,800, between August and December. Initially, the banks suggest that those overcharged might number in the low, single-digit thousands. There may be even more.