3.4.2 When completing the Examination and when assessing compliance with regulatory
requirements, the lender is to demonstrate that it is ensuring that customers’ interests are
protected, that customers are being treated fairly and that it has considered customers’
reasonable expectations with regard to their entitlement to a Tracker Interest Rate, in the
context of the information provided and the disclosures made by the lender to customers.
3.5 INFLUENCING FACTORS
3.5.1 In the course of the Examination, the lender is to consider all influencing factors when
determining whether detriment has arisen or may have arisen including:
call scripts used by the lender in communications with customers in relation to
Tracker Interest Rate mortgages and/or interest rate changes.
any relevant training material used by the lender when selling Tracker Interest Rate
mortgages and/or training material regarding interest rate changes during the in-scope
period, including any training given to mortgage intermediaries.
relevant management or policy decisions (and the point in time at which they were
made) which led to, for example:
o a change in product offering;
o an alteration to the terms and conditions of products offered; or
o targeted engagement or communication with customers.
issues raised via complaints received from customers with regard to Tracker Interest
Rate mortgages, including complaints dealt with via the lender’s internal complaints
process and those dealt with by the Financial Services Ombudsman, closed and
pipeline cases. The focus should be on the underlying issue(s) complained of,
regardless of the decision reached in each case.
the point in time at which information was provided to customers. For example, was
the rate change agreement provided in a timely manner in advance of the customer's
decision to switch, thereby allowing the customer to make an informed decision?
3.6 TRANSPARENCY CONSIDERATIONS
3.6.1 In the course of the Examination, and in the context of the transparency of the documentation
provided to customers, the lender is to consider whether there was potential to confuse or
mislead customers including, but not limited to:
a particular term pertaining to the loan agreement was given different meanings by the
lender at particular points in time or whether certain terms had dual meanings, with
the potential to confuse customers;
products or interest rates were given different names with the potential to confuse
customers in relation to the nature of the product or rate;
complicated terminology that had the potential to confuse or mislead a customer was
ever used;
definitions of product/rate types were clearly set out, for example, in loan offers;
terminology used by the lender pertaining to the loan agreement was consistent across
all documentation provided to a customer, for example, in both a Rate Change
Authority and the Loan Offer.
