Madam, – There can be no disputing the importance of money management in people’s lives (Editorial, June 4th). Banks and other financial institutions owe it to their customers to promote understanding through clarity of information; and, through that understanding, to gain customer trust and confidence. Financial institutions also owe it to themselves to have informed customers, as informed customers make for satisfied customers. Equally, customers have a responsibility to inform themselves by fully utilising all information sources.
An extensive range of financial education resources is already available from various banks and building societies and collectively through Irish Banking Federation (IBF): the website, www.financialcapability.ie brings all these together in one place. Where more needs to be done by the sector, it is most likely to be undertaken within the National Consumer Agency’s financial education policy framework. Making financial education an integral part of the school curriculum would clearly help consumers.
If consumers are less likely to change their banks than to switch their phone, gas or electricity providers, it is scarcely down to it being more difficult to do so, as stated in your Editorial. Under the IBF Personal Account Switching Code, the country’s leading retail financial institutions have established a simple process that makes it easy for customers to switch accounts from one financial institution to another; and they have produced material to explain how it’s done. To start the process, the customer simply contacts the institution to which s/he wishes to switch and the institutions do all the work. – Yours, etc,