Thanks Brendan - See below recap of facts of our case - We have met with the Central Bank and representatives for BOI over recent weeks and our case was extensively discussed when BOI were at the Finance Committee a few weeks back - if there are any more people out there in the same situation please contact us at
[email protected]
Ø Prior to entering into the 2-year Fixed Rate mortgage contract (late 06/ early 07) Bank of Ireland staff were consistently and clearly told by Bank of Ireland and ICS mortgages staff that, “if you switched to the 2-year Fixed Rate mortgage, you would have the option to roll to a staff tracker at the end of the fixed rate period”. There was never any mention at this stage that a condition of this offer was that you had to be on a tracker product previously.
Ø It was common Bank of Ireland policy in 2006 that all fixed rate products had the option of rolling to a tracker. Bank of Ireland staff were not excluded from this policy. This was confirmed in press releases and mortgage rate sheets released in 2006 prior to the launch of the product which we all relied on.
Ø Furthermore, the Bank of Ireland internal system (Mortgage link) had all staff on 3.95% fixed rate moving to ECB + 0.75% which assured us that this was the nature of our mortgage rate (i.e. 2-year fixed with automatic roll to Staff tracker). This information was freely available to all staff and was only unilaterally changed by Bank of Ireland (by a Product Switch) on the internal system on 11th November 2008, less than 2 months prior to the end of the fixed rate period.
Ø From the beginning of the fixed rate period up until October 2008, all staff were constantly reassured by BOI branch and mortgage staff that this product would be rolling to the staff tracker + 0.75% hence no-one within this product switched out of the product given these assurances (which would be unusual given regular level of switching between different products).
Ø On the 09/10/08, all 2000 staff on the fixed rate product received a communication from BOI confirming that “Staff who are currently on Staff 2-year fixed – currently 3.95% - will roll to ECB +0.75% …. at the end of their 2-year fixed period. …. If you do not respond to this notification
(which we did not) your account will
automatically default to the Staff Tracker ECB+0.75%”. There was no clarification at that point that your previous rate history and presence of a tracker product would determine what rate you would ultimately roll to (10 years later).
Ø Following the notification on the 09/10/08, a large number of staff on the fixed rate product sought confirmation from the Bank that they would continue to honour the option to roll to Tracker. A number of our cohort were given confirmation by email and via phone calls that we all had the option of the roll to tracker and that we would continue to have this right on 10 October 2008 and up to expiry of the fixed rate product.
Ø In November 2008, less than 2 months before the end of a 24-month contract, Bank of Ireland changed the parameters of the contract removing the roll to tracker provision and amending the internal mortgage system while acknowledging within internal documentation that they had “in error” previously confirmed that they had confirmed to staff that they would roll to the staff tracker product.
Bank of Ireland have provided redress to c. 1800 of the 2000 staff (& Ex-staff) who originated on the 2-year Fixed rate product using the argument that this group were on a tracker product at some stage in the past (not necessarily right before the 2-year Fixed Rate) while our cohort was not and that "they can't treat staff differently than regular customers".
Bank of Ireland did not communicate to our group at any time prior to launching the 2 year fixed rate product that on the basis of our rate history that we would not be entitled to roll to a tracker product. If we were told on day 1 (or up to October 2008 - towards the end of the fixed rate period) that our product was fundamentally different to the other product we, as a group, would have had an opportunity to make an informed decision as to whether to break out of our fixed rate products and switch to a tracker product. As we were not told this and as we were constantly told from day 1 that the product would roll to a tracker, we trusted that our employer & banking provider would honour its commitment which we have found out to our immense cost was a false promise. Bank of Ireland have admitted in internal documentation in 2008 that they "incorrectly" advised staff that they would roll to a tracker and in its redress letters to staff admit that their communication regarding what would happen at the end of the fixed rate period was "confusing and / or misleading" yet they continue to refuse us redress despite all communication materials / documentation being the same for all cohorts within the 2-year Fixed Rate mortgage.