A statutory ombudsman is urgently required for the financial services sector, a new report claimed today.
The annual report of the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs (ODCA), said over 100 complaints were received about the provision of financial services.
The Director of Consumer Affairs, Ms Carmel Foley, expressed concern that "aggressive lending advertising" by financial institutions offering unsolicited credit to customers could lead to overindebtedness.
Irish financial institutions are the most expensive of the member states in the area of cross border transfers, claimed the report. It suggested that this might be because Irish institutions did not seem to be publicising cheaper methods.
According to the report, foreign competition in the sector would be beneficial.
In 2000 the ODCA received 21,517 telephone enquiries, which was slightly down on the figure for 1999. However, the number of investigations (2,003) is significantly higher that the previous year.
The ODCA reported that concerns over the financial packages for hire-purchase, consumer hire and vehicle purchase remained. There were further signs this year that the number of people defaulting on agreements may be increasing.
Ms Foley said the public must be given full and clear information about the packages they were entering into and that it was "imperative that the customer knew clearly who was the owner of the vehicle at all times".
Ms Foley said the transparency in the pricing of airfares was improved by an order requiring total price display in March.
Ms Foley noted that three licensed premises were prosecuted for breeches of the Drink Prices Order which was lifted in January 14th, 20001. Further prosecutions are due before the court later this year.
The largest number of complaints concerned clothing, followed by motor vehicles, holiday’s furniture and home improvements.