Ms Jane Howard:

The Deputy has referred to the 20,000 customers who are not where we want them to be. We had hoped that they would have taken action by now. We will freeze them in a phased and orderly manner, in the way we have done everything. Approximately 2,000 to 2,500 will be frozen a week, in the coming weeks, starting next week. When we freeze the account, it freezes everything so, for example, if a direct debit comes into the account, it will be rejected. What that enables us to do with the customer is that the direct debit originator can see that the account is with Ulster Bank. It will get in contact with the customer. What we have found is that customers will then get in contact with us and we can get in contact with the customer. We can lift the freeze virtually immediately - in 15 minutes where we need to. We can then help the customer to agree on which bank they are going to, how to move things across and how to change their direct debits. That is what we need to do. These 20,000 customers sort of fall into two cohorts. There are some who have been open with us about the fact that they are just not going to go until they are made to and there are others in respect of whom we do not know why they have not left. They are the ones we are most worried about, but we have a team ready to support them in the coming weeks.