Ulster Bank is to issue refunds to 17 SMEs who were found to have been overcharged by its restructuring unit that was established to deal with struggling firms.
Ulster Bank’s Global Restructuring Group handled small and medium-sized companies that had borrowed between €1m and €25m from the bank and subsequently found themselves in financial distress.
However it, and a similar unit at Ulster Bank’s parent company Royal Bank of Scotland, has faced criticism for the complex fees it charged to customers.
The group has also been accused of pushing otherwise viable businesses to close, however Ulster Bank has denied this.
In a letter to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, the bank’s chief financial officer said that an independent review of the GRG had identified 17 customers who had been charged complex fees and were subsequently due a refund.
Paul Stanley said that the bank had either processed these refunds already, or was attempting to contact the affected customer in order to facilitate this.
Meanwhile Ulster Bank said it had also received 57 complaints from other companies, which the bank said it was currently processing.
Fianna Fáil’s finance spokesperson Michael McGrath said the number of complainants to the group was "exceptionally low", which led him to question how aware former customers were of the complaints process.
He also called for further scrutiny on the GRG from the relevant authorities.
"Given that more than 2,100 SME customers of Ulster Bank were put into GRG and fewer than 100 survived, serious questions need to be answered about the way GRG operated and whether these customers were given a fair chance of coming through the GRG process," he said.
"The one voice we haven't heard from to date is the Central Bank. We are told they are engaging with Ulster Bank on this issue but there has been no confirmation that they have investigating the conduct within GRG.
"The Central Bank would do well to take account of the work of the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK on this issue," he said.
