Central Bank public enquiry into ptsb senior executive

So you think that they should go to jail for disputing the terms of a contract?

And what about the 10% of complaints upheld my the Ombudsman? Should executives of those institutions go to jail?

And the 90% of complaints which are dismissed? Should they go to jail?

Brendan

If the complaints turn out to be unwarranted then obviously not! In other instances potentially yes, if and when it could be shown beyond a reasonable doubt that bank executives were trying to con customers to their disadvantage, that they did this deliberately, repeatedly and with malice and deceit, that the consequences for victims were sufficiently grave, etc. etc. The lawyers cited in the Irish Times article argue that this can and should be done under existing legislation, but not being a lawyer myself I can't assess their claims. Another question is whether legislation should be changed to make bringing criminal charges easier where the conditions just mentioned are met. I think there's a prima facie "sense of justice" argument in favour of considering this, esp. given Ireland's traditionally quite lenient treatment of white collar transgressions compared to its fairly harsh approach to some categories of working class crime.

tomdublin said:

if and when it could be shown beyond a reasonable doubt that bank executives were trying to con customers to their disadvantage, that they did this deliberately, repeatedly and with malice and deceit,

Click to expand...

Agree that if bankers actually defrauded customers they should go to jail.

But a lot of the tricks of bankers e.g. cash back, discriminating against existing customers, artificially high SVRs are not regarded as deceit. But maybe they should be. But first we would have to get the Central Bank or the Government to outlaw them.

If ptsb encouraged people to break out of their fixed rates early so they would lose their right to trackers, that is probably not criminal. It's wrong, but not criminal.

Brendan

The Business Post is reporting that Mr. Guinane has come out fighting!

David Guinane, the former chief executive of PTSB, has hit out at the ongoing inquiry being conducted by the Central Bank over his involvement in the tracker mortgage scandal, and accused the regulator of leaking information to the media. Giving evidence at the Central Bank inquiry on Wednesday, Guinane said it is “extraordinary” that he is the only banker ever brought before a public inquiry in relation to the tracker mortgage scandal and claimed he is being “singled-out” by the regulator. “I find this affair to be extraordinary. The fact that I am being asked to account for something that happened 15 years ago that neither I nor any of the other participants can even remember. I also find it extraordinary that I am the only one from either PTSB bank or any bank [that is facing an inquiry],” Guinane said.