Mr. Colm Kincaid:

In saying that, that is not to say there is any sort of closed book or conclusion. We reach a conclusion on an exercise, but the Chair is right to say there are still cases going through those processes he outlined.

In regard to the Ombudsman, which is where the original question came from, we are very engaged with the Ombudsman on all of those cases. It is one of the areas where we get sight of all of the cases that he identifies. It is absolutely our practice to consider them and to see if there is further action to take. One of the things I wanted to get across was that where we see a need or where something is brought to our attention and there is a need for further action, whether it relates to the tracker or any other review we have done, we will, of course, take that action. I was trying to sort of parcel it out between the review we did, the cases with the Ombudsman, and any further items that are brought to our attention. We have a strong track record in practice of dealing with Ombudsman cases, High Court cases or issues that are brought to our attention and not just dealing with an individual case, as the Chair said, but of looking beyond that to see if there is a more systemic issue in that firm or beyond that. We will continue to do that whether it is in the area of tracker or business interruption or any of the other areas where we have done that.

On the tied agents issue, I do not have much to add beyond what we said in this forum before. We will take any information in regard to that and assess it by reference to our functions. To date, on the information we have received, we have not concluded that there was a basis for action. However, we will look at any information we receive.

On the question of fraud, we report concerns we have in regard to fraud to An Garda Síochána but if there is any information that anyone would like to bring to the Central Bank, we will look at it. There is an avenue there.

On Deputy Doherty’s point on my earlier remarks on the obligation of the bank, that was said in a context of being asked what it means for the Central Bank to be scrutinising this and how might we intervene. The notification period in our code, which is about two months or so, is a notification to customers on a proposal to close an account. As Ms McMunn said, the scale of this is such that everything is on the table in terms of the Central Bank reaching a conclusion that we need to intervene in a particular way. I would not feel constrained in any way in regard to that. However, I would reiterate the message that it is important that we get started in the process and start to make as much movement through that portfolio of accounts as we can.