Results 9,441-9,460 of 12,320 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: 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?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: To the extent that Mr. Byrne accepts there were and perhaps are still some cultural issues, do he agree with the description by the Governor of the Central Bank, Mr. Lane, that it is a culture of seeking profitability to the detriment of the banks' customers? Is that what the problem is?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: To some degree Mr. Byrne accepts that there was an issue culturally in the past.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: When Mr. Byrne looks back at the culture that existed then, forget about now, would he agree with that description, of that fundamentally being an important element of what was wrong with the culture, a culture of seeking profitability to the detriment of the bank's customers?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: I have two questions regarding the prevailing rates issue. Is it the case for EBS customers who were never on a tracker that they should have been offered a tracker? In their contracts is the same language used in terms of the prevailing rate non-specified for EBS customers, as it is for AIB customers?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: In the case of this grouping of EBS customers, there would have been mention in their contracts of a specific rate as opposed to the prevailing rate.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: These are customers who did not sign up to a tracker but it is in their contracts as-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: Yes.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Allied Irish Banks (23 Jan 2018)
Paul Murphy: Mr. Byrne made reference in his opening statement to difficulty compounded by limited legacy IT systems and operational failures in AIB and EBS when they merged in 2011. I am dealing with the case of an EBS customer who seems to fit into this category. He is in communication with the bank in terms of redress etc. and it has said that he should have been sent a letter and it thinks he may...