Ms Derville Rowland:

It depends very much on the particular contract and the wording. One would have to read the wording of the terms and conditions as a whole and in particular. One would come up with a different answer depending on the different words of a contract. In the particular case we are speaking about, there were a number of key clauses that had to be read in totality.

One was a phrase in the contract called "the then prevailing rate". The question arises as to what does "then" mean and to what time does it relate? The view AIB took was that it related to the timing that the customer rolled off a contract and that it would offer the rate prevailing at that point, not the prevailing rates at the inception of the contract. One must look at these things in their totality. The Central Bank's approach had to be whether it could reasonably challenge the approach that AIB was taking in all the circumstances, taking all the contract terms into account and looking at the rate and the actions. The Central Bank took it as far as we felt we could. Of course, there could be particular things that each individual might be able to say - that we would not know about things that were done or said to them - and it was very important to offer customers the opportunity to avail of the options available to them inside the tracker mortgage examination, for example, the appeal and any other options. We were as robust as we could be in that particular case. Our track record demonstrates our robustness given the numbers of customers who have been included in tracker mortgage examination. When we look at an issue, we do not just look at the contract, we look at the transparency requirements, the factors which pertained at the time the customer entered into the contract and what their legitimate expectations would be in terms of all those circumstances. We also look at what we see as a reasonable approach to that. We have not been behind the curve in challenging where we feel there is a reasonable interpretation and we are committed to that. However, I recognise that some customers will be disappointed in the outcome because there are people who would wish to have that cheaper tracker rate and do not have it. I understand that some might be disappointed. However, we have taken a robust approach on their behalf and have ensured that where we could challenge, we have done so. Where we can reasonably challenge, we do so.