Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 12 May 2021

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

Consumer Credit (Amendment) Bill 2018 (Resumed): Engagement with Central Bank of Ireland

Mr. Kevin O'Brien:

There are different ways in which complaints come it. There is a public communications desk in the Central Bank that deals with things more generally and we get complaints through that. There is not a specific complaints avenue into the Central Bank on a firm-by-firm basis. As set out in the moneylending regulations that came into force on 1 January, there is a detailed obligation on firms in terms of the frequency and process they need to carry out. Our focus, primarily, is on checking with those firms that they are meeting their requirements by engaging with complaints and sorting out issues. Where there is any evidence of a significant failure in that regard, that is when one sees the Central Bank's supervision work which can sometimes lead on to enforcement work.