Key Post What does "acting in the best interest of customers" mean?

[demoivre]

2.1 acts honestly, fairly and professionally in the best interests of its customers
and the integrity of the market;

This could easily be interpreted as meaning that a customer who was to move to a variable rate or a flexi annuity rate, after a fixed rate, should have been offered a tracker, if the tracker rate was the lowest available variable rate at the time, and so in the best interests of the customer. A tracker is a type of variable rate.

On a slightly different note, and in the context of 2.1 above, it beggars belief that KBC are still getting away with charging some of their svr customers 4.25%. In fact Pascal Donohoe alluded to 2.1 very recently in a Dail speech but, unsurprisingly, it doesn't appear to be resonating very well with KBC !

 

[Sarenco]

What does "acting in the best interest of customers" mean?

Whatever the Central Bank says it means.

Taken literally, it would appear to imply a fiduciary standard whereby a regulated entity is required to place the interests of its customers above its own interests. That obviously conflicts with the directors' statutory obligation to act in the best interests of its shareholders.