Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Crowley is aware the FSPO made a preliminary ruling on the issue of prevailing rates. This is something many committee members have been dealing with in different banks over a long period of time. This ruling resulted in one bank doubling its provisions for redress and compensation. Will Mr. Crowley clarify whether the ruling affected Permanent TSB customers? Of the 200 cases before the FSPO, how many types of groups are there? Are there specific groupings? For example, 40 could be to do with a prevailing rate issue. Does Mr. Crowley have any detail on this?

More generally, this is the first time the bank has come before the committee since the fine was handed down on 30 May. The bank was fined €21 million for serious failings across 2,007 tracker mortgage customers' accounts. This happened until October 2018, including during the tracker mortgage examination, which is shocking and damning. It calls into question the statements that representatives of the bank previously made to the public through this committee. In the words of the Central Bank, the fine reflected an unacceptable harm that Permanent TSB caused to its tracker mortgage customers for an extended period of significant overcharging, to the loss of 12 family homes and 19 buy-to-let properties. We know the fine was reduced from €30 million to €21 million under the settlement discounted scheme. What are Mr. Crowley's views on the fine and the reasons for it? More importantly, what is his message to those customers who were harmed? What does he say specifically to the Central Bank's finding that this harm continued during the course of the tracker mortgage examination?