OREANDA-NEWS. November 06, 2015. The Central Bank of Ireland today publishes its first Consumer Protection Bulletin, which was compiled using data gathered from credit institutions. The Central Bank will be publishing these bulletins periodically, covering different aspects of the market.

This bulletin focuses on current accounts and  provides a high level overview of the number and value of consumer current accounts, the number of consumers using the Code of Conduct on the Switching of Current Accounts and the number of consumer complaints received by firms in relation to current accounts.

The data was collated from credit institutions offering domestic current accounts and dates primarily from July 2014 to June 2015 (with some historical trends dating back to July 2013). The key trends include:

  • Current account numbers are decreasing but there has been an increase in account values.
  • Switching levels under the Switching Code remain low but there is evidence that switchers are opting for providers offering more competitive fees and charges.
  • 99% of the number of switches completed under the Switching Code were completed within the timeframes prescribed by that Code.
  • While complaints on current accounts represent less than 1% of the overall current account numbers, they represent the largest number of banking complaints and the numbers of such complaints has increased.