# Ulster Bank Update 8/12/16



## notabene (8 Dec 2016)

I met with Senior Management in Ulster Bank today - following on from a series of letters written to them over the last year (38 letters)They further refused to acknowledge the emails which I had received in a data protection request except to say that one in particular shouldn't have been committed to writing.

When offered this meeting several weeks ago, I was most clear that we had had many less than insightful interactions and a meeting in which they told me they couldn't give a timeline, couldn't tell the answer or would say no was not of any use and a waste of my time.

I was only interested in a meeting in which the aim was a constructive resolution and I expected the senior management at the meeting to have the wherewith all to do so.

i gave them two dates in November and today. I received a letter last week naming today's date, the other two had passed by then. I assumed they had read and understood the letter which I had sent.

When I met the Senior Management today - they said they felt I was frustrated and that I could benefit from them telling me face to face that they are working under the guidance of the central bank and they have no idea when they will have the work completed. They would not be drawn on any time lines except to say a small number of people would get letters this month but the vast majority would be in the new year and all by the end of March 2017.

This is in direct contradiction with what was said last week at the finance committee meeting. They had absolutely no further information and the meeting was a total and utter waste of my time - I was not surprised to be honest but disgusted at their further blatant disregard for my time. I presume also the meeting had the aim of getting me to stop writing to them but it shall have the opposite effect


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## Brendan Burgess (8 Dec 2016)

To be fair, the banks are very frustrated at the degree of supervision by the Central Bank and the time it takes to get them to give approval to the banks' proposals. 

It's outside the control of the banks. 

Brendan


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## SaySomething (9 Dec 2016)

notabene said:


> They would not be drawn on any time lines except to say a small number of people would get letters this month but the vast majority would be in the new year and all by the end of March 2017.
> 
> This is in direct contradiction with what was said last week at the finance committee meeting. They had absolutely no further information and the meeting was a total and utter waste of my time - I was not surprised to be honest but disgusted at their further blatant disregard for my time. I presume also the meeting had the aim of getting me to stop writing to them but it shall have the opposite effect



Disgusted with their behaviour. How can they get away with saying one thing at a state committee last week and then saying something completely different to you this week? It's simple. There are no consequences for the bank at all. So disappointing for the many families who had hope that they'd be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel this Christmas.


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## PadKiss (9 Dec 2016)

Good God Brendan _"to be fair"_, are you kidding me. There isn't one ounce of fairness in this debacle for the affected customers. These lenders will do everything in their power to frustrate the process not the other way around. Get real and wake up to what occurred because the carnage caused to customers and their families in this matter was *caused by our banks and not our Central bank. *
Not all is perfect in the Central bank, granted,but the offenders here are the lenders and are totally to blame. 
_"Its outside the control of the Banks" _Brendan no matter is outside the control of the lenders in this mess. The only matter that was outside their control was the Tracker rates and look what they did to get that control back, everything possible. In fact less control and more instruction from our Central Bank to these lenders would help greatly move the matter along. Notabene I know what you are going through and this lender should be ashamed of its treatment of you but there is not one morsel of regret within any bank for what they have done. Their only regret is that they have been caught. Padraic


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## Bronte (9 Dec 2016)

SaySomething said:


> Disgusted with their behaviour. How can they get away with saying one thing at a state committee last week and then saying something completely different to you this week? It's simple. There are no consequences for the bank at all. So .



Yes I was amazed at that.  It's a deliberate plan actually as far as I can tell.  Tell the committee what they want to hear, prepare the answers to the questions they expect from the committee and walk away knowing that is the end of the matter.


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## Bronte (9 Dec 2016)

PadKiss said:


> Good God Brendan _"to be fair"_, are you kidding me. There isn't one ounce of fairness in this debacle for the affected customers. These lenders will do everything in their power to frustrate the process not the other way around. Get real and wake up to what occurred because the carnage caused to customers and their families in this matter was *caused by our banks and not our Central bank. *
> Not all is perfect in the Central bank, granted,but the offenders here are the lenders and are totally to blame.
> _"Its outside the control of the Banks" _Brendan no matter is outside the control of the lenders in this mess. The only matter that was outside their control was the Tracker rates and look what they did to get that control back, everything possible. In fact less control and more instruction from our Central Bank to these lenders would help greatly move the matter along. Notabene I know what you are going through and this lender should be ashamed of its treatment of you but there is not one morsel of regret within any bank for what they have done. Their only regret is that they have been caught. Padraic



That's right Padraic they only care about getting caught.  I mentioned years ago on here, did anyone ever get the minutes of the internal bank meetings where they discussed how to deliberately take trackers off people.  Through freedom of information perhaps.


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## SaySomething (10 Dec 2016)

Bronte said:


> That's right Padraic they only care about getting caught.  I mentioned years ago on here, did anyone ever get the minutes of the internal bank meetings where they discussed how to deliberately take trackers off people.  Through freedom of information perhaps.



Unfortunately Freedom of Information doesn't apply to banks per se, although you could make the argument that the state funded banks should be included in FOI. Definitely Ulster Bank doesn't fall within its remit.


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## Milo4444 (12 Dec 2016)

I called the bank last week and they didn't know anything about letters, I called today and was told that letters will be going out in the next week however they do not have the listing of affected customers. Told me to call back next week.


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## SaySomething (12 Dec 2016)

Milo4444 said:


> I called the bank last week and they didn't know anything about letters, I called today and was told that letters will be going out in the next week however they do not have the listing of affected customers. Told me to call back next week.


Sorry to be a total pedant but did you understand that to mean this week (starting today) or next week (starting 19th December)?


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## Milo4444 (22 Dec 2016)

I just see in the Irish Times that a lady received a letter of reinstatement from UB today, had anyone else received one? I have called 5 different people/departments and cannot find out any further information.


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## BlueSky (23 Dec 2016)

Hi Milo, if you check the discussion board Central Bank Tracker Review, you'll see discussion of this.  Some people have received letters this week, yes, and had a tracker rate restored.  Fantastic that something is finally happening for some of us.  Like you, however, I haven't had one and have been phoning around the place trying to get information - and it's very difficult to get any.  I was told today that I'm still on 4.1% for January's mortgage repayment and they have no idea when I will be hearing from them 'hopefully over the coming months'.  And this despite the CEO saying at the Joint Committee that it was their aim that all 2,000 customers would have a letter and a tracker rate by Christmas (and Paul Stanley added that 'some of them may drift into the very early part of the new year').  I watched the podcast of that meeting tonight just to be sure I had remembered the wording of the commitment he made correctly!  But now we're back to vague 'oh we have no idea when you might hear from us' stuff.
Hope you hear from them with good news sooner rather than later...


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