A Central Bank inspection has found several errors in bank products with promotional interest rates.
The inspection identified a number of concerns including interest rate errors on home loan products and misleading advertising. The inspection looked at five deposit products and six home loans products in six banks for over 112,000 customers. It did not name the banks examined,
Over 200 customer and 40 complaint files were reviewed. The Central Bank said that refunds will be paid to customers as a result of the investigation.
The Central Bank says that in the case of several homeloan products, mistakes were found where customers did not get promotional or discounted rate for the full year. It said these errors could have been avoided if the product development process included a thorough check of IT systems at the banks concerned.
The Central Bank also found that in the case of one deposit product, two brochures were looked and were considered to be 'unfair and misleading' to customers. The Central Bank said the brochures advertised an attractive equivalent annual rate, and information relating to the minimum rate payable was not clearly presented to the customer.
The inspection also found that two banks had difficulty locating signed application forms submitted by customers for homeloan or mortgage products.
A spokesman for AIB said that where customers are affected, they will be refunded with compensatory interest. He also said the bank apologised for any possible errors and said the bank would thoroughly go through the Central Bank findings.
A spokesperson for Bank of Ireland said it was not one of the banks mentioned in the Central Bank release.
Permanent TSB said it would not be making any comment.
