Morally questionable actions of banks in Northern Ireland are contributing to customers taking their own lives, church leaders have warned. Senior religious figures made the stark claim as they gave a joint presentation to a special Assembly committee hearing on the problems business owners are having with bankers in the current economic climate. Reverend Donald Kerr of the Methodist Church told MLAs that the churchmen had heard first hand of the tragic consequences financial pressures had visited on some families. “The claim that someone has taken their own life in part because of the way in which they were treated by the banks we recognise is a very large claim and we do not recount it lightly,” he said. “But we recount it because that is what we have been told by credible sources. It has not been our responsibility to investigate it in tight forensic detail but nevertheless that is what we have heard and therefore we heard it with pastoral concern and we pass it on. “We have heard it, we believe it to be credible and out of pastoral concern all in this society including this assembly needs to know the implications of the kind of decisions that are taken and their impact, not least on people involved, including, I should add on people working in the banking sector as well – they are also our pastoral concern.” The four main denominations in the region have expressed moral and ethical concerns about the banks and have met with senior bank officials over the summer to discuss their misgivings. Among the issues, the churchmen raised were a reluctance to lend; hikes in interest rates and transaction charges; immediate withdrawal of overdrafts; inaccessibility of decision makers; micro-management of a business’s affairs and perceived discrimination against areas like construction. Rev Kerr was joined at Stormont by Reverend John McDowell, the Honorary Secretary of the Church of Ireland General Synod, and Father Tim Bartlett, an advisor to All Ireland Primate Cardinal Sean Brady. President of the Presbyterian Church Reverend Norman Hamilton had also been due to attend the joint hearing of the Finance and Personnel committee and the Enterprise, Trade and Investment committee but had been unexpectedly indisposed on other matters. Father Bartlett stressed that banks’ actions were only one factor in the suicides they had heard of. “We did say ‘in part’ – that it was a contributory factor – that a loss of a business and the consequences of that bring their own stresses and strains and the particularities of somebody’s situation may lead them to this fatal decision.” Strangford MLA David McNarry asked the church representatives what response the bankers had given when they put it to them that people had taken their lives. “They did not challenge or demur from that,” said Fr Bartlett. “But that’s not to say that they knew that.” Earlier, a number of business leaders recalled their own experiences in a behind closed doors session of the committees. Father Bartlett said there was a culture of fear among many bank customers. “I myself would quietly worry that whether I or indeed other member of my family circle would suffer as a consequence of raising these issues in the long grass in the minds and memories of banks,” he said. “That is evidence of the lack of trust and culture of fear that is around.” But he added that he was impressed with the sincerity and professionalism of the individual bankers he had met with his religious counterparts over the summer. Rev Kerr said hearing stories and experiences of parishioners had left them little option but to take action on the banking issue. “As we listened we heard of behaviours that seemed to us to lack integrity, that seemed to us not to treat those who were involved in business in a fair or equitable manner,” he said. “I think it would be invidious of me to go into fine detail on this, but a moral issue does arise when the power which banks inevitably have in a relationship with any particular firm is, can I say, not used properly and therefore even though a business is meeting its obligations with the banks, nevertheless the bank puts an undue pressure on them.”
Since June the church delegation has met representatives of the four main banks in the region – Northern Bank, Ulster Bank, Bank of Ireland and First Trust. Senior officials from all four banks later appeared before the committee. They defended the way their banks operated and insisted they were working to support small and medium sized business (SME) owners. But Henry Elvin, head of business banking NI at Ulster Bank, said there had to be an acknowledgement that the banking landscape had changed. “If people are trying to say that the lending level in banks will recover to where it was in 07/08 that is not going to happen,” he told committee members. “That’s not just Ulster Bank or Northern Bank or Bank of Ireland or First Trust, it’s worldwide.” He added: “What we are focusing on in the bank and I’m sure colleagues are the same is that SME sector which is the very sector you want us to focus on and that’s where the attention has gone. “We have provided many price promises and all sorts of things.” John Kilty, general manager of First Trust, said demand for credit in Northern Ireland actually remained low as the recession continue to impact. But he conceded his bank was not actively looking for new SME customers, instead focusing on existing customers. He added: “I think we all realise that what went wrong and what we don’t want to see a repeat of is the era of cheap credit and excess credit so what we will have is less credit, more pricey credit but it will be better for more stable environment rather (than) the boom/bust over the medium to long term.” During the day-long hearings, representatives from the Institute of Directors also briefed the Assembly members on how businesses believed they were being hit by banking policy.
