The Central Bank of Ireland has fined domestic lender Permanent TSB €21m for regulatory breaches affecting tracker mortgage customers.
The bank also admitted to 42 separate regulatory breaches affecting 2,007 customer accounts between August 2004 and October 2018.
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The decision is the first in the series of ongoing investigations into tracker mortgages.
Permanent TSB fined: Details
In its investigation, the central bank found that Permanent TSB committed multiple serious breaches in mortgage tracking resulting in a number of failures.
It found that the lender failed to issue warning to certain customers about the consequences of their decisions on mortgages. Permanent TSB also denied certain customers their correct tracker rate between 2009 and 2010.
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By GlobalDataThe investigation also found that the lender failed to safeguard its tracker mortgage customers’ best interests and honour their contractual entitlements.
In total, Permanent TSB was fined €30m, which was reduced by 30% in accordance with the settlement discount scheme provided for in the Central Bank’s administrative sanctions procedure.
Additionally, Permanent TSB will pay €54.3m as compensation to its affected customers.
Central Bank director of Enforcement and Anti-Money Laundering Seána Cunningham said: “Our investigation found that PTSB failed to put their customers first, with distressing and, in some instances, devastating consequences.
“PTSB failed in their obligations to do the right thing by their customers. In doing so, they broke the trust of their customers and damaged the public’s confidence in PTSB.”
Permanent TSB chief executive Jeremy Masding apologised to the affected customers. He said that the bank has addressed all the operational and procedural weaknesses found in the investigation.
