by Ronan Coburn | Jun 29, 2017 | Banking Inquiry 2014
Profiling GDPR, Ireland It is now widely accepted that Data is the new Oil (2006, Clive Humby, UK mathematician & inventor of the Tesco Clubcard). Today, there is a new “gang of four,” as Google chairman Eric Schmidt puts it [Profiling GDPR Eric Schmidt Gang of Four ] . They are Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook [GAAF], and they are behind the consumer revolution on the Internet today. All four companies are “growing at incredible rates”. Schmidt notes that all four are together worth in excess of half a trillion dollars, they are all platforms in their own right, and they are all basically spreading their power where before there was only one company who had such influence: namely, Microsoft User Profiling The core businesses of the GAAF have now fundamentally converged into Profiling. Article 4 of the GDPR defines Profiling as “any form of automated processing of personal data consisting of using those data to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person, in particular to analyse or predict aspects concerning that natural person’s performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behaviour, location or movements”. Article 22 goes on to state that a European Citizen has the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, [including profiling] which produces legal effects or similarly significantly affects, with certain exemptions to this, Profiling GDPR – Recital-71 – April 2017 Through Profiling of all of its users, the GAAF Corporates know who your best friends are, your preferred holiday destinations and your relationship status. Over-and-above this there is a colossol quantity of...
by Ronan Coburn | May 7, 2017 | Topical in Irish Banking Sector, Tracker Mortgages' Scandal
AIB Belfry cases progressing in Court Approximately 300 investors in AIB Belfry cases (out of an estimated 3000 investors in the six Funds) are pursuing damages for alleged negligence, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, negligent mismanagement and misrepresentation by AIB and other parties. Last month the Irish Times reporting on AIB Belfry cases (in a preliminary ruling in April 2017) a High Court judge approved hundreds of damages actions by investors in the Belfry property funds to go to a full trial on some, but not all, of the grounds advanced. The Court found, while some elements of the claims are statue-barred, other parts of the claims can now proceed to trial. The claims involve the operation of five separate investment funds into commercial property in the UK known as “the AIB Belfry Funds”. Affidavits claim individuals invested sums of between €50,000 and €200,000 in the funds between 2002 and 2006. Some cases involved individuals’ life savings to have been designated as pension funds. Seemingly the Statute of Limitations may not protect the various classes of Defendants if fraud in the mis-selling & operation of the AIB Belfry Funds can be evidenced. Loan to Value covenants In his preliminary ruling after 11-months, Judge Haughton decided on 28th April 2017 crucially, the investors’ contentions of alleged failure to advise them about aspects of the funds known as a loan-to-value (LTV) covenant before they invested are not statue-barred. It is claimed these covenants permitted assets which the fund had invested in to be sold if their value fell below a certain amount. These asset sales, it is claimed, occurred...
by Ronan Coburn | May 3, 2017 | Tracker Mortgages' Scandal
First of two Tracker Redress Flaws A Conflict of Interest is something that potentially haunts members of the Professions in all democracies. On the Web Site of KPMG., (authors of PermTSB’s Tracker Redress Scheme) reference is made to a recent Wall Street Journal article1 and public comments by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Director of the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, 2 the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the SEC are “keenly focused on conflicts of interest” for firms in the financial services sector. Further emphasizing the importance of managing conflicts of interest (COIs), SEC Director di Florio stated that “conflicts of interest, when not eliminated or properly mitigated, are a leading indicator of significant regulatory issues for individual firms, and sometimes even systematic risk for the entire financial system.” A recent Sunday Times article disclosed that KPMG were paid €8.6m by Permanent TSB in 2015 for work on the state-controlled bank’s Tracker Mortgage Redress Scheme [TMRS] and other “regulatory and compliance projects”. The payment, equivalent to a substantial 3% of the accountancy firm’s all-Ireland fee income [of about €300m a year], provides the first glimpse of how a Tracker Redress Flaws scandal will cost Irish lenders millions in fees, on top of the interest refunds and compensation they will have to pay to impacted customers. Second of two Tracker Redress Flaws The emerging Tracker Redress Flaws scandal, is rooted in the unfair removal of low-cost tracker mortgages from thousands of home owners, is also interfering with the banks’ ability to securitise, or offload mortgages as they seek to sanitise their balance sheets. Approximately 90 of...
by Ronan Coburn | Apr 10, 2017 | Topical in Irish Banking Sector, Tracker Mortgages' Scandal
Ulster Bank GRG seeking some type of self-redemption Late last year Ulster Bank GRG [the Bank’s – now disbanded Global Recovery Group], produced a 3-year delayed response to the Tomlinson Report into RBS & its subsidiaries (2013) lawrence Tomlinson Report into operations of RBS The Irish Times reported [ Ulster Bank GRG notice to Irish borrowers] on the establishment of a compensation Scheme whereby €450M was being made available by way of a dispute appeal reserve. Eligible individuals & businesses must first of all meet the following criteria (A) not have previously referred their Dispute to the Financial Services Ombudsman, and (B) not engaged in Litigation or pre-litigation communications with the Bank. Very recently Ulster Bank GRG made direct contact with a number of potentially qualifying Borrowers, with quite an obscure account of how the Scheme will operate. It only relates to certain ‘complex fees’ as applied by Ulster Bank GRG from 2008 to 2013. Under the very narrowly defined scheme such ‘Complex Fees’ disregard Irish Interest Rate Hedging Products’ miselling. Additionally the Scheme bypasses any recognition of the understated role of Consequential Losses (or chain-reaction/ cause & affect losses). A salient precedent case on this topic is Hadley versus Baxendale (1854), beloved by many Law Students over the previous Century-and-a-half. In an appearance of Senior Ulster Bank Executives before the Oireachtas Finance Committee in December 2016, the following was put to Andrew Blair (Head of Problem Debt Management – Ulster Bank), by Pearse Doherty (TD Sinn Fein). “Businesses believed they would be supported but, as was put to me, they were not aware that they were being put...
by Ronan Coburn | Mar 1, 2017 | Topical in Irish Banking Sector
Recently in preparations for a Data Protection post-graduate Certificate, I discovered what perhaps few EU citizens are aware of -> that modern European Privacy Rights have their roots in the operations of the STASI (the former east-German Ministry of State Security) and the NAZI party in the late 1930s. One person in seven of the then east German population were informing the STASI on the rest. GDPR & DPRIA., stand for General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Risk Impact Assessment, respectively. This Blog uses the term ‘Data’ in the context of ‘personal data relating to an identifiable Data Subject’ . If you are a Decision-maker in an Irish Company and your Company uses data on European Citizens then, you really do need to get familiar with the steps necessary to comply with GDPR and DPRIA. GDPR will become mandatory from 25th May 2018 onwards, and Companies that are not sufficiently geared-up for compliance will be subject to seriously substantial financial fines in tandem with potentially greater reputational damages. By way of direct preparation for the seismic impact on 25th May 2018, GDPR risk assessment has just become everyday terms in business strategy for entities that use and/or store data on citizens of the European Union and far beyond. The Regulation will put individuals in control of their personal data, empowering them to choose how (and whether at all) businesses use their data. Where an individual’s personal data is not treated in compliance with GDPR risk assessment, the affected individual will have legal recourse and a potential financial compensation claim. Additionally data protection Regulators within the EU will be adequately resourced...
