Irish Examiner view: The banks have always had it both ways

Amid the current turmoil, Ireland's banks ought to do more to win our loyalty — for instance by offering fairer rates to savers

Customers, consumers, community: Call us what you will but — not unlike the townspeople portrayed in the movie 'It’s a Wonderful Life' — our interests are not being served by banks. File picture

According to the Taoiseach, the banks “cannot have it both ways” after the European Central Bank applied its sixth rate increase within 12 months, on this occasion by 0.5%, as part of its crusade to squeeze inflation out of the economic system. 

The people most immediately affected are mortgage holders who are already struggling to balance the twin demands of a stubbornly high cost of living and additional repayments from domestic budgets which are, in any real sense, stagnant.