Ms Elizabeth Arnett:

We started this very early because we could see there was a role for us and a role for the receiving institutions, but in between there are the direct debit originators. We ran a press campaign to advertise that we were having engagement with direct debit originators. We could clearly see from our data what the larger 20 are but there are many more that may not feature in a top 20 list. We advertised publicly in the press and we held a briefing session. We learned a lot from that around the challenges direct debit originators would have. We had a very good dialogue with them, and in particular I would mention the Department of Social Protection. We have a very proactive engagement with that Department, which is now on a weekly basis. The Department has set up an online tool where, in real time, a person can change his or her bank account details. Some 10% of pensioners in receipt of a pension from the Department of Social Protection have already used that. This is not surprising to us because we outreached to those customers and encouraged them to move early.

It has been a useful dialogue for us to have from the very outset. We have also seen evidence of direct debit originators that we had not engaged with directly and who received the message. Some pension funds, for example, have been proactively reaching out and letting people know that if they are Ulster Bank customers they need to give the companies the details. Other direct debit originators such as alarm companies and so on have also been very proactive in this space. We cannot do enough in continuing that dialogue and reinforcing it because this is where there could be a real point of pain for customers if we do not have that process as smooth and as easy as we can.

Customers are also giving us feedback on certain service providers to let us know if they cannot find the link on their websites and if it is difficult. We are engaging with direct debit originators to give them that feedback to try to smooth the process, so as to influence it as best we can from our perspective. The BPFI is very engaged in this space as well.