Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Going back to the tracker mortgage issue, we unfortunately cannot raise all of the individual concerns raised with us. I apologise to everybody who has contacted us with regard to this but we would be here for the next week if we did that. I will ask Mr. Stanley about a case where an individual took out a tracker mortgage and, when the European Central Bank, ECB, interest rate increased, that person's rate increased. However, when the ECB reduced its rates, Ulster Bank wrote to the customer to say that the new minimum monthly payment was a certain amount but as the customer was already due to pay more than that, the bank had not made any changes to the amount it collected from the person's bank account. That effectively meant that the bank held the interest rate at a higher level which obviously shortened the term of the mortgage but did not reduce in line with the ECB's reduction. This customer wrote to the bank to instruct it that only the minimum amount should be deducted but the letter was ignored. Was this common practice within the bank, that when the ECB's rate reduced, it did not automatically involve a reduction in the tracker mortgage customer's account? This individual was aware of his rights even though the bank did not afford him his rights when he asked for the rate to be reduced because the payment would still be above the minimum. Was this policy within the bank? Has Mr. Stanley come across this?