Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 14 September 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Banking Issues: Discussion

Mr. Jim O'Keeffe:

I would like to give reassurance that in everything we look at now, we have a very progressed vulnerability programme within the bank. We have a dedicated helpline to support customers. We identify customers who may need assistance in the background so that we are able to pick that up, depending on what is happening. Any programme, including the programme we referred to, takes into account the steps we would need to take with vulnerable customers. To give a sense of that, already this year, in terms of customers who would be in need of support in that way, outside of ordinary support, we have recorded something in the region of 2,500 customers that we have assisted. That is where we would pick up on various regulations or guidance, in terms of how it is being built in. There is a very heavy training programme for all of our staff at the front end to ensure that people can identify customers with vulnerability. Regarding those in the circumstances described in terms of financial abuse, obviously that is something that is a big focus of ours as well because of the very nature of our business.

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