Results 9,501-9,520 of 12,388 for speaker:Paul Murphy
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: I am not sure about the relevance of the point made about the financial loss but I am interested in exploring the matter further. As I understand from the opening statement, the decisions made about tracker mortgages were not made as decisions to improve the profitability of the banks or to deny people's contractual rights to a tracker mortgage and that these were an unforeseen consequence....
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: Is Mr. Byrne saying a decision piece was taken not to continue to offer tracker mortgages to new customers? Correct. Is he saying that it was an unforeseen and unintended consequence and meant that people who were coming off fixed mortgages were not entitled to what they were entitled to, which was to go onto tracker mortgages?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: It was not a decision to improve profitability, that part of the consequence. Is Mr. Byrne saying that it just flowed as an unfortunate but automatic consequence of the first decision?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: Therefore, the relevance of the loss of the €19 billion does not play into this unless one accepts-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: Yes. In Mr. Byrne's narrative that explains the first decision. It does not explain the consequence unless he accepts that there was a conscious mind, in terms of the consequence. As I understand from his statement, he does not accept that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: How does that relate to the decision about margins? I understand the logic that says we have withdrawn this product from the market and, therefore, when customers come off their fixed mortgage we will not offer a tracker option to them. How does that relate to the decision to charge people an incorrectly high margin?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: Did the bank find anyone who was charged a lower margin?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: Were more people on the higher margin than on the lower one? Was it more a sum of money than a hike at the other end?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: The essential argument is that in terms of the consequence of the decision not to offer tracker mortgages to new customers, existing customers were denied their contractual rights. Effectively, that was an unforeseen consequence and a happy coincidence from the point the view of the bank's profitability and that alone; it was not a happy coincidence from anybody else's point of view.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: There is another coincidence, which is the fact that all the banks that were offering tracker mortgages made similar decisions around the same time. Does Mr. Byrne have any explanation for that?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: I understand all that as to why they stopped offering tracker mortgages-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: -----but what I do not understand is why people were denied their contractual rights. I do not understand how that flows. Mr. Byrne is saying that was a mistake made by AIB as an unforeseen consequence but the idea that the same mistake was made by all the banks at the same period of time, and that it all just happens to have improved the profitability of the banks, is quite hard to accept,...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: Sure.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: Again, Mr. Byrne is saying it is a coincidence, an unforeseen and unintended consequence, that all the banks implemented their decision to withdraw trackers, which had a commercial profitability basis to it, in the same mistaken way to deny their customers' contractual rights.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: Is Mr. Byrne aware of any contact between AIB and other banks on this issue from time to time?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: We have two possible explanations for this. One is this whole series of happy coincidences that happened to enhance AIB's profitability and other banks' profitability, or the other possibility is that the banks and AIB consciously took the decision to defraud their customers, but AIB expect it to be the first one, that it was just all these coincidences and unforeseen consequences.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: Has Mr. Byrne ever heard Bertolt Brecht's expression about banks when he said bank robbery is an initiative of amateurs, true professionals set up banks? Does Mr. Byrne think that is accurate in terms of the bank's ability to rob its own customers?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: Of course Mr. Byrne can answer it.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: No, I am not asking Mr. Byrne to repeat the quote. I am asking him if he thinks that banks, as they have done in this instance, in many instances in the past and are likely to do in the future as long as they are run on the same basis, are likely to rob their customers.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: Okay. I will ask Mr. Byrne a question about culture. Does he agree that there is an ongoing cultural problem in AIB, as has been suggested by the Governor of the Central Bank and the Minister for Finance?