Ms Gráinne McEvoy:

The initiative we introduced in June 2018 dealt with exactly that issue. We required the firms to communicate to their customers on an annual basis if they had a better product available, particularly a mortgage product, and if it was a cheaper product, they had to write to and inform the customer of that product. All of that was within the mindset of encouraging the customer to switch. We know from our evidence that there is a very low level of switching within mortgage products. This was introduced exclusively for that reason, namely, to encourage customers to switch. We were very clear and transparent, based on the research we had undertaken, about the savings that were available to customers in one, two or ten years down the line. It is a very real saving. It is an initiative that came into effect on 1 January 2019. As yet, we do not have the evidence to show whether it has yielded or given rise to greater degrees of switching in that space, but it is an important measure that will actively encourage consumers to switch.