Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I believe that the least a bank should do is inform the person concerned about the value the loan has been sold at. Does Mr. Sibley think that is a possibility?

Online fraud and the variety of such fraud has become a massive issue in Ireland. As banking increasingly moves towards online banking and faceless banking, online fraud will become an even bigger problem. One of the major banks, Bank of Ireland, recently ran an advertising campaign to make its customers aware of online fraud. What else can we do to combat online fraud?

Some of my friends run a company but they had a lot of money taken off them because somebody pretended to be somebody else and money was sent to the wrong account. My friends found dealing with their bank to be fine but they are afraid to say much about the incident. Can protocols be put in place? Can safety measures be strengthened by the Central Bank or the ombudsman? Can a branch of the Central Bank act as an intermediary in such cases? The banks do return the moneys stolen if one has not done anything intentionally. In fairness to the Irish banking system, there is a lot of cover for affected customers. However, there are many instances where there is no cover and people lose their money simply by making a mistake in good faith. Can something more be done to protect the consumer in these cases?