Tracker Mortgage Scandal: Accountability and Clarity Questions Remain

New Central Bank figures show that in excess of 42,000 mortgage accounts have now been identified as having been impacted by the tracker mortgage scandal – but more than a decade on, serious questions remain about accountability and transparency, writes John Downes, director of a new two-part RTÉ documentary series, TRACKERS: The People V The Banks.

It is the single biggest consumer overcharging scandal in the history of the State, which cost the banks at least €1 billion to rectify. Some estimates suggest you can easily add another €500 million to that figure when administrative and other ancillary costs are included.

In late december 2015, as the scale of the Tracker mortgage scandal became known to the Central Bank, the regulator launched its largest ever investigation into all of the major banks in Ireland.

At issue was why, when people fixed their mortgages for 2-3 years, they were refused the option of getting their valuable Tracker mortgage back once this fixed period ended. Many of the same banks under investigation by the Central Bank had been bailed out by the taxpayer to the tune of some €64 billion just a few years earlier.

But progress on this investigation was painfully slow, prompting strong criticism of the Central Bank by members of the Oireachtas Finance Committee and, in particular, its then chairman John McGuinness TD. He tells us he could not believe how long it was taking to get a real handle on the numbers involved.

As late as October 2017 – nearly two years on from the launch of the Central Bank’s investigation – and after victims of the scandal told their story publicly to mcguinness’s Finance Committee, then Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe was summoning the CEOs of AIB, Bank of Ireland, and others to meet with him and demanding action.

He said the testimony of these customers showed just how badly treated and hurt people had been by the tracker mortgage scandal.

“The Central Bank is of the view that some bank behavior up to now has been unacceptable, legalistic, and not customer-centered,” he said in a statement at the time. “Let me be very clear – the Goverment believes that the behaviour of the banking sector in relation to tracker mortgages was disgraceful. This is a scandal.”

For the first time, our documentary series tells the inside story of what exactly went on with the Tracker mortgage scandal, which the Central Bank has now confirmed had extended to approximately 42,000 accounts across 11 lenders by June of this year.

This is between four and five times some initial estimates provided by the banks themselves.

Today, all of the banks involved are deeply apologetic for their actions at the time and stress that they have learned their lessons when it comes to dealing with their customers.

But speak to some of those most severely impacted – and the small group of people who tried to shout stop – and you hear a different story. It is one of being told repeatedly there is nothing to see here. You are wrong. We are right.

In this first