The banks are robbing your money!

national | consumer issues | opinion/analysis

Thursday May 27, 2004 17:12

by Solas

Rececent revelations regarding AIB overcharging merely underline the contempt banking and financial issues have for ordinary people.

Recent revelations regarding foreign exchange overcharging by Allied Irish Banks (AIB) are further evidence of the contemptuous and irresponsible activity of banking institituions in Ireland.
This latest example of the utter contempt banks and indeed other financial insititutions have for ordinary people comes in the wake of banks withdrawing services from working class areas across Dublin and in various rural areas around the country often triggering economic and social decline in the affected communities. This is at the same time that they are making record billions in profits every year.
The banks and other institutions are licenesed by the state. Their arrogance is a result of a culture that has developed in Ireland over a long period of time in which the banks were allowed to operate as they liked without being challenged.
Investigation of the banking institutions, proper regulation and immediate repayment of people's money are immediate priorities. But banks need to be forced into some form of accountability to the community where they are often the sole provider of essential services. They cannot be allowed to just vacate an area after making a tidy profit over many years.

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Comments (5 of 5)

Nationalise them!

by Nestor

Thu May 27, 2004 17:19

The only way to make the banks and other financial institutions accountable to the community is to take them under proper democratic control. The cuurent government is trying to push every other service to be just like the banks- privatised and unaccountable.

AIB caught out again!

by Jemmy

Thu May 27, 2004 18:10

The plot thickens. AIB have just been caught out again. Let's hope the unravelling story leads people to treat the banks with even more suspicion. They sure deserve it!

AIB's real violation

by Sean Healy

Tue Jun 01, 2004 14:07

People on Indymedia are normally so sceptical of mainstream coverage of business news, but are willing to swallow their line on AIB without question. What hasn't been properly and clearly reported is that AIB is guilty not of advertising one fee and charging another (overcharging, ripping off the customer), but of reporting one fee to the regulator and charging another. In no way were customers being hoodwinked. Indeed, the discrepancy was overlooked for so long precisely because there was nothing out of the ordinary in a 1% commission on forex transactions (i.e. this was in line with what other banks were charging). So the violation was of the technical, not ethical, variety.

Not to mention 25 million may seem like a lot to ordinary people, but it actually represents a tiny fraction of the bank's income over the period in question and so not worth the risk that deliberate overcharging would entail That is, what AIB was likely to gain from the violation in no way matches the headache they're dealing with now as a result of its revelation. Stupid mistake, yes; rip-off, no.

Guilty of a lot more

by Voice of Reason

Tue Jun 29, 2004 14:32

AIB have since been shown to be guilty of a lot more. If only we could get more whistleblowers to expose other issues.

Interesting how an issue which affects everyone attract so little comment.

AIB benefits..........

by Conor Cruise 'Missile' O'Brien

Fri Mar 14, 2008 21:53

That a professional organisation, such as AIB claim to be, could 'inadvertantly' overcharge its customers for a period of over 20 years beggars belief.

I have seen evidence that the overcharges were not, as alleged above, simply a matter of reporting one level of charge to the Finacial Authorities and charging another to their customers. I have seen evidence that the 'inadvertant overcharges' were and remain without a single common factor, such as has been reported. That implies at the very least negligence on the part of AIB management.

This is a time bomb that will ingnite fury and anger across the Irish Republic when it becomes fully clear what AIB management were upto.

It is time the Irish people understood how they have been hoodwinked and misled not only by AIB but also by Government Authorities as well.

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The banks are robbing your money!

Comments (5 of 5)