Mr. Ger Deering:

It is important to point out that our legislation empowers us to deal with the conduct of a financial services provider. Taking the Deputy's questions in reverse order, if a bank withdraws a service, for example, leaving a country, providing fewer services or withdrawing services, that is not something we can deal with. If there is any conduct relating to an individual complainant during the process of a bank leaving the country or folding up shop such as the sale of a loan and ensuring that the same terms and conditions apply to that loan as it moves on, those are areas where we can look at the individual customer and if he or she has a complaint relating to any conduct such as the closure of a bank, we can look into it. However, the provision of services is not something we can look at.

Regarding PCPs, as my colleague noted, it is not something we have seen a lot of. As for whether the change to electric vehicles will make a difference, it is difficult for us to know at this stage until we start to see a trend in complaints. Again, we are the canary in the coal mine.

We often see the trends first because we see the complaints coming in from individuals. If we do see those sorts of trends, we bring them to the attention of the policymakers or regulators, if we think that needs to happen.