OECD report makes suggestions to improve consumer protections in Ireland
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The Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) is being urged to better engage with consumers through surveys and regular engagements with small businesses to improve its consumer supervisory function.
Ireland is the first country in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to undergo a review of its consumer protection supervisory by the economic policy group.
The report's key finding is that the Central Bank is a mature and sophisticated oversight body and has appropriate policies and practices to monitor financial markets, identify risks to consumers and improve outcomes for consumers.
However, the OCED has made a number of recommendations to beef up protections for consumers here.
These include enhancing the CBI's Consumer Advisory Group (CAG) to ensure that it includes the consumer perspective on the broad range of financial consumer protection matters within the remit of the Central Bank. The OECD suggests reserving spaces on the CAG for representatives of consumers or consumer associations.
The watchdog is also urged to conduct more surveys of Ireland’s adult population to evaluate and track consumer behaviours and attitudes towards financial products and services.
The OCED report also focused on vulnerable members of the Republic who are often victims of financial scams and fraud. It found the Central Bank has a number of mechanisms to support consumers in vulnerable circumstances.
However, it recommended that an evidence-based understanding of consumer vulnerability was needed by researching the main drivers of vulnerability for Irish financial consumers and their prevalence.
Governor of the Central Bank, Gabriel Makhlouf said he welcomed the OECD's findings. "This is the first review of its kind by the OECD, and the Central Bank was very pleased to be a pioneer in this work, given our shared commitment to consumer protection," he said.
"The implementation of these recommendations will sit alongside our new regulatory and supervisory framework and our forthcoming new Consumer Protection Code and ensure regulated firms are operating under a modernised set of rules and approaches as we face into a changing global economy."