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Fianna Fáil's Michael McGrath. Niall Carson/PA

Fianna Fáil calls for punitive action after 10,000 customers 'wrongly denied' tracker mortgages

Reports suggest the final bill for the banks and other lenders could run to over €1 billion.

FIANNA FÁIL HAS called on the Central Bank to intervene as it emerges that over 10,000 mortgage customers were wrongly denied tracker mortgages.

The party’s Finance spokesman Michael McGrath has accused Irish banks of “wilful abuse” of the law in their dealings with customers in the escalating tracker mortgage scandal.

Bank of Ireland has identified a further 602 mortgage customers wrongly denied a tracker rate and 3,916 tracker customers who were overcharged. Several other banks have already confirmed they wrongly denied thousands of customers a tracker mortgage.

McGrath said the figures of mortgage holders wrongly denied a track mortgage could be “well north of 10,000″.

Yesterday Bank of Ireland confirmed it overcharged almost 4,000 mortgage holders.

Reports suggest the final bill for the banks and other lenders could run to over €1 billion.

“It has become increasingly clear that the practice of denying mortgage customers their contractual right to a tracker interest rate was systemic and widespread across the banking industry,” he said in a statement.

This practice has changed the lives of thousands of families for the worse and has inflicted on some families the devastation of losing their home.

“While the full picture is still only emerging, it is now distinctly possible that well north of 10,000 mortgage holders were wrongly denied a tracker mortgage rate with thousands of others being overcharged on their tracker rate.

It is not credible to argue that this was anything other than a wilful abuse of the contractual rights of customers by the main lenders in Ireland.

He added that the Central Bank has to “lay down a firm marker” once and for all by implementing “punitive” sanctions.

Philip Lane, the governor of the Central Bank, appear before the Oireachtas Finance Committee on Tuesday.

McGrath has also called on the Central Bank to find out who knew about the overcharging practices at board and senior executive level in the country’s banks.

Read: Bank of Ireland confirms it overcharged on almost 4,000 mortgages

Read: Gardaí seize €120,000 in cash and drugs worth €40,000 in Cork raids

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    Mute Pat Lonergan
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    Aug 1st 2018, 8:07 AM

    Day 1 and all ready I have made up my mind,what a poor selection.Really shows what a good President Micheal D is.

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    Mute Gus Sheridan
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    Aug 1st 2018, 8:32 AM

    @Pat Lonergan: shows how we are scraping the bottom of the barrel, all our best candidates have left, and we are left with the dross.

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    Mute Gus Sheridan
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    Aug 1st 2018, 8:33 AM

    @Pat Lonergan: he definitely is not.

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    Mute Boris Farage
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    Aug 1st 2018, 8:36 AM

    @Gus Sheridan: Best of that lot??? Without a shadow of a doubt.

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    Mute Pat Lonergan
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    Aug 1st 2018, 10:23 AM

    @Gus Sheridan: So which of the as of now declared candidates would you say comes with in as ass roar of Micheal D?

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    Mute Senan Hogan O'Brien
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    Aug 1st 2018, 7:58 AM

    How depressing

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    Mute James O'Brien
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    Aug 1st 2018, 8:03 AM

    A room full of headless chickens I’d say that was fun

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    Mute Colonel Grant
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    Aug 1st 2018, 10:47 AM

    There has to be a collective noun for a group of complete eejits . This was a classic case.

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    Mute Ray Hyland
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    Aug 1st 2018, 10:57 AM

    So it looks like we’re going to have a half dozen candidates again. All because it’s probably easier for the media to find stories if there’s more people involved. Pointless if you ask me.

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    Mute Victor Brown
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    Aug 1st 2018, 1:24 PM

    The Rás for The Áras…. Attention seekers

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    Mute anthony byrne
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    Aug 1st 2018, 2:57 PM

    Duffy who gets his kicks out of hunting innocent animals, not fit to represent Ireland, vile person.

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    Mute Mickey Fennessy
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    Aug 1st 2018, 10:48 PM

    Gavin Duffy if u like people who torture animals for fun

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    Mute Marie Setterfield
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    Sep 11th 2018, 5:03 PM

    Not much there to get excited about

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