Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

A number of banks have announced reductions in their rates in recent days. This is very welcome. However, there is a rule in business that one should look after one's customers. A number of these banks have stated that this reduction will only apply to new customers and to what they term switchers. In other words, they are encouraging people who are not their customers to join them but a loyal customer who has been a customer of a bank for some years will not get that benefit. I do not understand this policy and I do not think it makes sense. There should be an outcry against it. I am not suggesting that there should be legislation but it does not seem to make sense that any business would decide to do something for new customers but not for existing customers. It happens all the time with telephone companies and with subscriptions to magazines. We should cry out against this practice.

It is time we did something about legislation to do with crowd funding. I have an involvement with Linked Finance and I think it is a very worthy concept of crowd funding. A person expanding his or her business and in need of financing can offer others to participate and interest will be paid. This has worked very well. In Britain they are talking about introducing legislation because crowd funding has been linked to equity finance. There is a danger that the public will be misled. The British financial regulatory authority plans to introduce legislation. In my view, crowd funding needs to be regulated by legislation, not only to protect the investor but also to ensure that we can enjoy the benefits of crowd funding.