The Central Bank introduced its Code of Conduct on the Switching of Current Accounts with Credit Institutions in October 2010.  This Code built on the voluntary IBF Personal Account Switching Code and IBF Business Account Switching Code.

For more information on switching accounts, please visit the National Consumer Agency website here.

Switching is Easy

The European Commission's DG Health and Consumers commissioned a mystery shopping exercise to assess the impact of the European Banking Industry Committee's Common Principles on bank account switching (see below).  The study found that:

• “In general the level of information provided by Irish banks on their websites relating to bank account switching is much higher than the EU average, with only a very small proportion of shoppers unable to find clear information relating to the step-by-step process.”
• “As with the information provided on Irish banks’ websites, the information provided by staff relating to bank account switching is also generally more comprehensive than the EU average; including as many as 83% who were told the process was free and 74% told about the transfer of direct debits and standing orders. Indeed 49% were told that they would have to contact with the old bank, which is the third highest of any Member State.”
• Some 60% of those who tried to switch bank accounts were successful in Ireland, compared with an EU average of 19%.

For more details, visit the European Commission's website here.

EBIC Common Principles for Bank Account Switching

The European Banking Industry Committee (EBIC) has developed a set of Common Principles which, on a European level, establish a common standard for banks’ conduct as regards personal current account switching within Member States.

The Common Principles ensure that bank account switching is not onerous to consumers and that their mobility shall not be constrained by any unnecessary delay or cost, or by a lack of support from their banks. The Common Principles also increase consumers’ awareness of the switching-related services they can expect, and aim at reducing consumers’ apprehensions with respect to bank account switching.

The Common Principles lay out that:

• Banks will provide consumers who want to switch current account with clear and complete information.
• ‘New’ and ‘former’ banks commit to facilitating smooth and timely switching, notably as regards recurrent incoming and outgoing payments related to a current account. Conditional on the involvement of third parties, ‘new’ and ‘former’ banks commit to completing their assigned tasks within seven working days each.
• The consumer can use the ‘new’ bank as the Primary Contact Point during the switching and in order to arrange the transfer of relevant information from the ‘former’ bank.
• The ‘new’ bank offers to inform creditors on behalf of the consumer on the changed account details.
• Consumers will have free-of-charge access to relevant general and personal information readily available at banks. Fees linked to other switching-related services (if any) will be transparent and in line with costs.

Premable to EBIC Common Principles on Bank Account Switching

EBIC Common Principles on Bank Account Switching