AIB: Still ripping off customers with impunity

Once again AIB has been ripping off its customers, (sub required) this time the victims are elderly and disabled customers.

In July 2000 AIB ‘overcharged’ 43,000 elderly and disabled customers by about €93 each. The total amounted to €4 million.

Age Action Ireland said it was concerned that pensioners were the latest group to have suffered as a result of the bank’s overcharging mistakes.

A spokeswoman for the Financial Regulator said it was deeply disappointed at the news but could do nothing as the ‘overcharging’ predates the legislation giving it power to fine for ‘overcharging’.

A spokeswoman for AIB said the bank had put procedures in place to prevent such ‘mistakes’ in the future.

Comment:

AIB ripped off its customers again and was found out, repaid the money and said it had put procedures in place to make sure it never happened again. This is what AIB does every time it rips off its customers.

The latest victims expressed concern that so many people are ripped off by this particular bank. Customer concern is always ignored by the offending financial institution, the Financial Regulator and the State.

The Financial Regulator said it was deeply disappointed but there was nothing it could do. The Financial Regulator has never taken any effective action against any rogue financial institution since it was established in 2003. None of its predecessors, going back to the establishment of the state in 1922, has ever taken any effective action against rogue financial institutions.

Financial institutions operate in the Republic of Ireland in supreme (and justified) confidence that they have nothing to fear from an ineffective and weak financial regulator.