Ombudsman gets over 100 complaints about flight of financial services firms

While the FSPO could not provide details on specific circumstances, it said it had received 118 complaints specifically relating to market exit issues, of which 80 had already been concluded. 

Thirty-eight are active and were mostly engaged in the FSPO’s Dispute Resolution Service (mediation) or a formal investigation. However, the ombudsman added that not all complaints relating to ‘market exit’ issues are complaints against providers leaving the Irish market.

None of the complaints closed following adjudication, with 43 closed following mediation. Providers resolved most of the other complaints in the early stages of the complaints process.

A spokeswoman for the FSPO said: “The FSPO is very much aware that customers may be experiencing issues which may be seriously impacting their lives, such as accessing new bank accounts or credit facilities, or switching mortgages, for example.”

According to figures from the Central Bank, over 696,000 accounts were closed by the end of December 2022. It followed the decision of both KBC Ireland and Ulster Bank to exit the Irish market, leading to consumers switching to a retail bank – including AIB, Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB – or a digital bank such as Revolut, Bunq, or N26.

In 2021, the FSPO received over 4,650 complaints with a value of over €7m in complaint outcomes. Banking complaints represented 57pc of all complaints received, mainly about customer service.

While industry body the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland said it did not have a role in the resolution of complaints, it said the figures demonstrated the significant programme of work undertaken by the industry to help in the migration of “hundreds of thousands” of customer accounts.