Ulster Bank's customer compensation package is a bit measly, isn't it?

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Ulster Bank's customer compensation package is a bit measly, isn't it?

01/09/2012 2:44 pm

Having put their customers through something approaching financial hell for weeks, Ulster Bank have stumped up a whopping €25 to compensate those affected.

Chances are you were one of the 600,000 people affected by the IT Crash that led to chaos in the bank earlier in the summer, leading to non-receipt of wages and an inability to pay bills because of the faulty system.

A remedy for the problem was promised on numerous occasions, but in the end it was the best part of a month before things returned to normal and the compensation promised to the bank’s customers will hardly impress those affected.

According to today’s Irish Independent, Ulster Bank have proposed a four-strand compensation package for customers, a package that has been labelled as “derisory” by financial experts.

The package consists of:

A €25 payout to personal current account holders forced to use branch banking more often than normal because the bank's electronic payments systems did not work for four weeks.

Ulster Bank vowed to waive fees, charges and surcharge interest for three months.

It will also cover out-of-pocket expenses incurred during the technical chaos, topped up by 20pc extra. But this top-up is limited to a maximum of €120.

Savers get some extra interest on their deposits.

Unsurprisingly, the package got a less than lukewarm response from consumer groups, business organisations and political representatives.

Labour Senator Lorraine Higgins, for example, called it "insulting and derisory" and told the Irish Independent: "The payment of €25 to customers who had to go into branches during the crisis does not adequately address the stress, inconvenience and hardship endured by them."

Ulster Bank boss Jim Brown, on the other hand, felt it sufficient enough, saying: "I'm happy with it. I think it goes far enough," he said.

"In terms of larger, more complex cases, someone not being able to settle on a property, we will look at those on a case-by-case basis."

Ulster Bank are still coming to terms with the fallout of the cock-up earlier in the summer, with compensation fees set to cost the bank tens of millions of Euros.

In the meantime, they’re making their best efforts to stop their customers from leaving them and getting into bed with the competition, which many have done in the wake of what was an extremely costly period.

In terms of PR, the bank suffered nearly as big a blow as Tiger Woods following the revelation of his bed-hopping exploits a cpuple of years back. This latest offer can hardly help their cause.


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Conor Heneghan
Conor Heneghan
You can take the man out of Mayo but...
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