Madam, – Why must the Irish public blithely accept the consensus view that banks can now increase their interest charges to their customers? Now we have the regulator virtually giving them a carte blanche to increase their rates. I am incensed! Each of the Irish banks is now virtually a monopoly in its own market. There is next to no competition between them and little or no possibility of a disgruntled customer finding another supplier of banking services.
So why should they be allowed to indulge in typical monopolistic/ cartel practices and increase their prices to maintain profits rather than reducing their costs? Why is the competition authority not calling them in to justify their monopolistic behaviour?
They should be forced to reduce their costs and should not be allowed to increase their prices to hold up their profits. For example, the employees and staff of these “bankrupt” companies should have their salaries and perks cut to reflect their industry collapse. It should not be the customers/rescuers who pay the price to maintain profitability – interest increases should not be permitted and the regulator should not justify them. – Yours, etc,