Mr. Bernard Byrne:

Our engagement with the Credit Review Office is based on cases where a customer disagrees with a credit decision we have made. It could be that they view the rate we have offered as declinatory, namely a rate that is damaging to their business. In such cases, they have the option of going to the Credit Review Office.

I am not aware of instances where that has been the case, however. Normally, if someone was uncomfortable with our credit decision, they could appeal to us first, as we have a separate independent internal process. In the event they were uncomfortable with the decision at that point, they could then go to the Credit Review Office. The number of appeals that go to the office is very small. Over the past four years, out of 150,000 SME credit decisions made by all banks, fewer than 1,000 have gone to the Credit Review Office. Our portion in that would only be several hundred.