| |
|
|
News Release 23rd February 2005SAFER BANKING FOR THE ELDERLYMichael Fabricant is the main sponsor of a Parliamentary Bill calling on banks to offer greater protection to their vulnerable elderly customers. The Banking Practices (Protection of the Elderly) Bill, introduced in Parliament on Wednesday [by Conservative MP for New Forest East, Julian Lewis], recommends three changes: 1. There should be a ban on ATM cash machine charges for pensioners gaining access to the accounts in which they are now obliged to receive their pensions. 2. Banks which operated the ill-fated Share Appreciation Mortgages in the 1990s, which have left elderly people unable to sell their homes without giving three-quarters of the increase in their value to their banks, should be declared inequitable and the debts should be rescheduled to impose only a reasonable rate of interest. 3. Banks should have in place software which will automatically alert account managers, cashiers, and where appropriate relatives and carers of elderly people about untypically large or frequent withdrawals being made from a vulnerable client's account - whether or not being made by the account holder personally. This is to improve safeguards against the activities of conmen and other criminals who prey on the vulnerable and suggestible. Michael says "As a Private Members' measure, this Bill sadly will not become law. However I believe it is important to register my approval - along with Members of the other two major Parties - for the principles behind it. We all know how much misery is caused by those who take advantage of the vulnerability of the elderly." |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
