Vol. 548 No. 5
172 Mr. McDowell asked the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the call made by the Director of Consumer Affairs for a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service for an urgent inquiry into the banks' new policy on clearing cheques and their virtual monopoly on retail payments; if he has raised these issues with the Irish Bankers Federation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5872/02]
The statement made by the Director of Consumer Affairs to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service on 21 November last was wide-ranging and touched upon many issues. Among the issues addressed was the matter of restrictions in cheque encashment procedures. The director observed that many institutions seemed to have amended their cheque encashment procedures at the same time. She expressed the belief that these amendments may have arisen from a decision of the Irish Payment Services Organisation, IPSO, which controls entry to the cheque settlement system. She said she had advised the Competition Authority of her concerns in this matter.
As regards the specific issue of the changes in cheque encashment policy which occurred towards the end of 2000 and early 2001, my Department have no statutory function in this area. However, as a result of representations from my Department with the Bank of Ireland and AIB, several proposed changes in cheque encashment practices which would have seriously inconvenienced customers, were postponed or withdrawn, including that the new system would not apply to certain pension payments. In addition, my Department were in correspondence with the ODCA, in which we sought to address the concerns expressed by the director on this issue.
As regards the general issue of control of the retail payments system, it should be noted that the Competition Authority are the most appropriate body to pursue any such inquiry into alleged uncompetitive practices. I understand that although the Competition Authority expressed concerns about the level of competition in the Irish banking industry, no abuses of competition law have been sustained against the banking sector.
