Mr. Stephen Groarke:

I want to be specific about that particular issue. The contract at the time, to use the exact language, talked about the customer going back to the tracker rate at the expiry of the fixed rate period. For customers who did not reach the expiry of the fixed rate period, the system defaulted them back to the variable rate rather than the tracker rate. For a large proportion of this time the variable rate was a cheaper rate because the ECB rate was higher at that time.

In terms of customer service over the desk, it was not identified to people that that was a disadvantageous position. The systems error was that we did not put in place warnings, which we should have done under the consumer protection code, that the position might reverse and the tracker rate could be a more favourable rate in future years.