Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 5:

In page 2, between lines 14 and 15, to insert the following new subsection:

"(4) The Regulatory Authority shall have the power to examine any additional customer charges applied by a credit institution in receipt of financial support under this Act."

This amendment provides for the regulatory authority to monitor any institutions receiving support from the State to ensure they do not engage in excessive profiteering in some other manner. One of the things people have noticed recently is that many of the lending institutions are levying new charges and surcharges on their customers to make up for the drop in profitability resulting from the difficulty in lending at high interest rates and borrowing at low interest rates. People have noticed that additional charges are being incurred. The regulatory authority should monitor institutions to ensure they do not start to levy hidden or indirect charges on customers.