Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 4 April 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Matters Relating to the Banking Sector: Bank of Ireland

Ms Francesca McDonagh:

May I have an opportunity to respond? On that point about many Irish consumers not necessarily knowing what interest rate they are on for a mortgage, that would apply to personal lending as well. Mr. Kelly touched on the issue of financial well-being. We have launched a major financial well-being initiative. We have committed €5 million to an investment over multiple years to improve the financial well-being of consumers in Ireland, not just our customers. We launched it because despite the relatively high levels of education and GDP per capita growth that have come through since the crisis, the level of financial literacy in Ireland is very low, with 45% of people feeling confident about their interest rate. Our target is to engage with 200,000 customers or non-customers in Ireland to offer them a financial well-being health check. That will involve questions about meeting their financial commitments each month, so people can see how they rate or rank versus the rest of the population. That should open a conversation about helping with their financial well-being. We have also committed to entering every single primary and secondary school in Ireland as part of our youth financial literacy programme, and we are doing some innovation looking at international best in class practices in our financial well-being lab. It is not just about sending another letter to a customer on SVR about a fixed rate offer; the broader issue is about making people more aware, from their time in education through all stages in their lives. This is not just for people who are financially not well off; it is for all customers to look at how healthy their finances are. We have committed a €5 million investment to that so it is something we take incredibly seriously.

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