Mr. Mark Fielding:

The official made the point that because the institutions had been recapitalised by the Government they had to be brought back into profit. The increases in charges by Bank of Ireland for foreign exchange range from 29% to a high of 250%, while the cost of electronic funds transfer has increased by 23%. At a time when businesses are doing their best to embrace e-business, we believe the banks are not helping the situation. Increases in business online charges range from 42% to 250%, whereas those for paper transactions have risen by 33% to 97%. The increases for business online transactions are much higher. AIB is increasing its cash handling fees by a whopping 165%. It has dropped the secondary and primary rates of 17 cent per €100 and has adopted a standard rate of 45 cent per €100. It is not the first time we have experienced such increases by the banks. The last time we had increases of this level was when the euro was being introduced in 1999 and fixed rates were being set across the euro currency zone. As consumers we expected major benefits, but those did not materialise. Instead, the bank ratcheted up commission from an average of £3.50 to as high as £45. It is a matter of regret that the banks managed to pull the wool over the eyes of the director of the Office of Consumer Affairs at the time, who passed these increases. It was due to the strong intervention by ISME to highlight the massive disparity in commissions to which the Office of Consumer Affairs had agreed that the banks then reduced their charges somewhat.

At the time the European Commission was not exactly impressed.