Bank of Ireland: record €100.52m tracker mortgage fine and other Central Bank sanctions
Bank of Ireland: record €100.52m tracker mortgage fine and other Central Bank sanctions: a public-record watch file compiled by Falling Shares Intelligence from filings and exchange disclosures, as of 2026-11-09. The Central Bank of Ireland's tracker mortgage examination found 40,100 customers across lenders had been wrongly denied or overcharged; lenders had paid €683m in redress by May 2019.
From the Central Bank of Ireland's tracker mortgage examination to a record 2022 fine and three other sanctions between 2020 and 2022: what the regulator found, what was paid and where matters stand.
Falling Shares Intelligence, Edited by Wung Thomas, Editor-in-Chief. As of .
Summary
- The Central Bank of Ireland's tracker mortgage examination found 40,100 customers across lenders had been wrongly denied or overcharged; lenders had paid €683m in redress by May 2019.
- In September 2022 the Central Bank fined Bank of Ireland €100.52m, its largest fine under the sanctions procedure, over 15,910 tracker accounts and 81 admitted breaches.
- The bank also settled three other Central Bank cases in 2020 and 2021, and was fined over £3.7m by the UK Payment Systems Regulator in February 2026. No new Irish sanction was found for 2023 to 2026.
Key figures
| Tracker fine | €100.52m (After a 30% settlement discount from €143.6m; announced 29 Sep 2022) |
|---|---|
| Accounts affected | 15,910 (Bank of Ireland tracker accounts, Aug 2004 to Jun 2022; 50 properties lost) |
| Redress paid | >€186.4m (Paid by Bank of Ireland before and during the examination) |
| Industry redress | €683m (All lenders, 40,100 customers, by end-May 2019) |
The tracker mortgage case
Industry-wide tracker examination
The Central Bank's final report on its Tracker Mortgage Examination said 40,100 customers across lenders had been affected, and that €683m in redress and compensation had been paid by end-May 2019. It said the failings led to the loss of homes and properties in some cases. Permanent TSB had been fined €21m, with other investigations ongoing. (16 Jul 2019)
Record fine and reprimand
The Central Bank reprimanded Bank of Ireland and fined it €100.52m, after a 30% settlement discount from €143.6m, the largest penalty under its Administrative Sanctions Procedure. It said the bank admitted 81 breaches affecting 15,910 tracker accounts between August 2004 and June 2022, under consumer-contract regulations and the Code of Practice for Credit Institutions 2001 and Consumer Protection Codes 2006 and 2012. (29 Sep 2022)
What the regulator said went wrong
The Central Bank said Bank of Ireland's documents were unclear about tracker entitlements and that it interpreted them in its own favour for over nine years. It also cited a failure to warn customers that switching or breaking a fixed rate would forfeit trackers, tracker rates granted only to those who complained, wrongly excluded customers, and inaccurate information given to the regulator in 2018. Its enforcement director said the case exposed a culture that put the bank's interests ahead of customers. (29 Sep 2022)
Customer harm and redress
The Central Bank said 50 properties were lost, 25 family homes and 25 buy-to-let properties, and many customers were overcharged for an extended period. It said Bank of Ireland had paid more than €186.4m in redress before and during the examination, but that its initial redress proposals fell short of the regulator's expectations. It cited five previous enforcement actions against the bank as an aggravating factor. (29 Sep 2022)
Open questions after the fine
The Irish Times reported the bank was still finding affected customers as late as June 2022 and that an inquiry into an individual had shown no apparent progress about 11 months after it opened. It said Ulster Bank and Permanent TSB were challenging Ombudsman redress decisions in court. (29 Sep 2022)
Other regulatory sanctions
MiFID breaches at the private banking unit
The Central Bank fined the bank €1.66m, after a 30% discount from €2.37m, for five admitted breaches of the MiFID Regulations 2007 at its former private banking subsidiary. A hacked client email led to payments of €106,430 in 2014; the client was reimbursed. The regulator said an internal report was withheld for 19 months and the bank's denials had the effect of misleading it. (27-28 Jul 2020)
IT service continuity fine
The Central Bank fined the bank €24.5m, down from €35m after the 30% settlement discount, for five contraventions on IT service continuity between 2008 and 2019. It cited weaknesses in planning, governance and third-party oversight. (2 Dec 2021)
UK payments regulator fine on Bank of Ireland UK
The UK Payment Systems Regulator announced it had concluded an investigation into Bank of Ireland UK for failing to comply with Specific Direction 17 on Confirmation of Payee, and imposed a fine of over £3.7m. (19 Feb 2026)
Mitigating factors and the bank's position
Cooperation, admissions and apology
The Central Bank recorded the bank's constructive cooperation as a mitigating factor in the tracker case, and each fine above followed a settlement with admissions and a 30% discount. The bank's interim chief executive apologised after the 2022 fine and said the bank had learned hard lessons. The regulator found no customer detriment in the IT continuity case. (2020-2022)
Standard
This file compiles regulator documents, company statements and published reporting about Bank of Ireland Group plc and its principal subsidiary, The Governor and Company of the Bank of Ireland. Allegations are attributed to those who made them. An investigation is not a charge, a charge is not a finding, and nothing here is a finding of wrongdoing unless a competent authority has made one. The Central Bank of Ireland's sanctions were agreed by settlement, with the bank admitting the breaches set out in its public notices; the bank has apologised for the tracker failings, and no further Central Bank sanction has been found since 2022. Individuals are not named unless an official document names them and they are central; otherwise roles are used. This is news coverage for information only, not investment advice.
Right of reply
Bank of Ireland Group plc, and anyone named in a record cited here, can send corrections or comments to info@fallingshares.com (or directly to the Editor-in-Chief, Wung Thomas, at wungthomas@fallingshares.com). Material responses will be published alongside the relevant entry.