Mistakes were made, compensation paid and everything's ok now, right?
Permanent TSB is to compensate a number of people who held mortgages with them because, according to the Central Bank, PTSB failed to inform the customers of the impact of transferring from a tracker mortgage (good) to a fixed-rate mortgage (crappy).
Not only were customers not adequately informed of the potential cost of switching, they were not clear that it was a path of no return - many only discovered that when they desperately attempted to switch back, only to be refused. In fact, the bank fought tooth-and-nail through the courts to prevent such reversals.
The bank says its mistakes impacted more than a thousand accounts, but the Central Bank found they were a 'key factor' in the loss of ownership of at least 22 properties.
Stress
In compensation, PTSB has said it will walk away from monies owed on the properties, and will pay €50,000 to owner-occupiers and €25,000 to buy-to-lets - a result likely to please no-one.
Few if any home-owners will feel that financial pay-offs eradicate the pain, stress and upheaval caused by having your home taken away, particularly if it was done incorrectly. The bank will undoubtedly feel it was ill-advised in the legal stance it took and has been left out of pocket.
The rest of us will look on slack-jawed when we realise that this happened between 2006 and 2012. In other words, most of it occurred during a period in which banks were meant to be super careful and hyper self-aware. A period in which this bank was taxpayer supported.
If there's one straw to be clutched at, it's that a resolution seems to have been achieved. So maybe this is finally the moment we can relax and say all the banks are now squeaky clean. Right? Right?