Central bank and Ulster Bank must answer serious questions – McGrath
Published on: 02 July 2012
Both the Central Bank and Ulster Bank will have serious questions to answer about the ongoing problems at Ulster Bank when they appear before the Joint Oireachtas Finance Committee this week, according to Fianna Fáil Finance Spokesperson Michael McGrath.
Deputy McGrath was speaking following confirmation that the Central Bank will attend the committee on Wednesday and Ulster Bank will attend on Thursday. Deputy McGrath requested on Monday of last week that both organisations be called before the committee.
Deputy McGrath stated, “The customers of Ulster Bank were reassured on a number of occasions that the problems at the bank would be fully resolved by now. However, the bank today says it cannot say when normal service will resume at the bank. This problem, which dates back to Tuesday 19 June, has been handled very badly by the bank and by the Central Bank.
“The scale of the problem at Ulster Bank was clearly larger than the bank was willing to acknowledge in the first instance and it has failed to get to grips with the problem the two weeks have since passed. Meanwhile, the Central Bank has not covered itself in glory since news of the problems at Ulster Bank first emerged. The Central Bank was slow to respond initially, and its response since has been inadequate.
“Both organisations will have serious questions to answer when they appear the Oireachtas Finance committee later this week. Meanwhile, it is completely unacceptable that thousands of personal and business customers of Ulster Bank continue to be denied access to basic banking services.”