Once again Irish consumers find themselves the victim of a ‘banking error’. Customers of Bank of Ireland have been ‘mistakenly’ double charged to the tune of millions on their Laser cards (Irish Independent).
These so called ‘errors’ are very common in Ireland and always follow the same pattern.
The ‘error’ always favours the bank never the customer.
It’s always a customer, the media or a whistleblower who notices the ‘error’ – never the bank, never the Financial Regulator.
Bank officials are never to blame; it’s always the fault of a computer.
The bank always apologises because apologies are magic in Ireland – they completely wipe any need for accountability.
The bank always promises that the ‘error’ will never happen again – It always does.
The bank is allowed to investigate itself and report to the Financial Regulator in its own good time, if ever.
The bank is never punished for such ‘errors’. They are merely required to return monies robbed or taken in ‘error’.
Bank of Ireland spokesman, Brendan Nevin, was asked about the bank’s contact with the Financial Regulator (News at One, 2nd report).
We have been in contact with the FR explaining what happened and in due course we’ll confirm the full details of our investigation to the regulator.
Because banks are not actually regulated by the Financial Regulator Nevin became confused when asked if the FR wanted the bank to do anything else; he spluttered in reply.
Well, in general the FR would want us to be clear about all our facts which is what we’re doing at the moment.
We’ll never know whether this incident was a genuine error or yet another scam to rob customers because the so called Financial Regulator has no interest in protecting consumers and banks, who are still allowed to operate pretty much as they like, are unlikely to admit wrongdoing.
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