Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My final question is on the Central Bank's enforcement powers and its ability to get a handle on this situation and ensure that the banking system and banks are held to account. Regarding enforcement, penalties and fines, it would seem that, notwithstanding what the country has gone through and the backlash against banks, they still seem to believe that they do not need to adhere to the same standards as other professions. If someone's solicitor is fined, the solicitor does not turn around and send a fee note to a different client telling him or her to help pay the fine. With the banks, however, whatever financial penalties the Central Bank imposes on them just seem to be passed on to customers. How are they paying?

This speaks to the issue of the banks' culture. Some members have outlined a litany of incidents, namely, the bogus non-resident accounts, the DIRT scandal, systematic overcharging of customers by NIB, the tracker loan scandal involving all of the banks, general governance issues at Anglo Irish Bank and INBS, AIB and Allfirst, the PPI situation and endowment mortgage sales. These are just the headline issues. In terms of culture, what sanctions will make a difference to bankers' thinking? They do not operate like human beings at all. This is what is constantly reported back by people who have had encounters. As a country, taxpayers and a Government, everyone had to stretch to save the banking system for public interest reasons. As such, that professionals within the banks have not been held to account seems to be a major issue.

The greatest impact the Central Bank could have is to tell banks that if they breach a certain threshold of behaviour, it will consider revoking their operating licences. That is what will hit them. They will pass on fines and the like. That is what they do. They are like a machine that swallows up fines and grabs that money from somewhere else.