Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 January 2018
161. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Finance the nature and status of the enforcement proceedings under way against the main banks in the tracker mortgage scandal; the date on which the enforcement proceedings began; the specific banks against which proceedings have been taken; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4319/18]
View answerThe Central Bank has advised that it has utilised its enforcement powers and continues to pursue enforcement actions in response to tracker mortgage issues that have been identified at certain lenders. The Bank has already concluded an enforcement investigation in respect of tracker mortgage-related failures identified at Springboard Mortgages Limited in November 2016. In that instance the Bank imposed a monetary penalty of €4.5 million on Springboard in respect of the failures.
The Central Bank is currently pursuing enforcement investigations in relation to tracker mortgage-related issues arising in Permanent TSB plc and Ulster Bank Ireland DAC. Two further enforcement investigations into other lenders are in train and it is expected that all of the main lenders will face enforcement investigations.
The Central Bank has advised that these enforcement investigations will be informed by evidence obtained and gathered as part of the Central Bank’s on-going tracker mortgage examination and by other means. Enforcement investigations are detailed and forensic and involve the scrutiny of large volumes of documentation and interviews with relevant individuals as part of the investigative process in order to establish the exact circumstances of matters under investigation. In the enforcement investigations, the Central Bank will consider all possible angles, including potential individual culpability, and will thoroughly investigate and analyse matters in the context of the applicable legal framework.
It is important to note that in relation to its on-going enforcement investigations, the Central Bank is bound by strict confidentiality and professional secrecy rules both at national level, section 33AK of the Central Bank Act, 1942, and at EU level, namely, the Rome Treaty, the ECSB Statute and in this case, the Capital Requirements Directive IV. As a result, the Central Bank cannot publicly disclose further details of its on-going supervisory and enforcement engagement with individual firms. In general, the Central Bank is only permitted to disclose aggregate information such that an individual firm cannot be identified from that disclosure or where information, such as for example where a firm itself publicly discloses that it is the subject of enforcement investigations, is already in the public domain.
