The Central Bank has called for AIB, Bank of Ireland, KBC Bank Ireland, Permanent TSB, and Ulster Bank to improve their customer service phone lines after finding, as part of a review, that some consumers had to wait over two hours to be connected.

The regulator completed the assessment of call wait times, call abandonment rates and resourcing levels across the retail banks in anticipation of KBC and Ulster Bank's withdrawals from the market, with demand for customers services to increase this year as their hundreds of thousands of customers switch banks.

The review found that the average call wait times on some customer support phone lines were "excessive" and exceeded internal service level agreements of the banks concerned.

Some banks experienced unexpected spikes in demand on customer support phone lines, contributing to the long wait times, with longest wait times of over two hours in some cases, which the Central Bank described as "unacceptably high".

Resourcing levels also "varied considerably" across the banks, some of which "insufficiently" resourced their customer support phone lines, while one phone line had a call abandonment rate of over 50%.

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"We have engaged directly with the retail banks to implement robust action plans to ensure the level of customer service provided on support phone lines is sufficient to manage both normal call volumes and to deal with surge events," a statement from the Central Bank said. 

"The banks have provided details of measures they are taking to address the issues highlighted by our review, including increased capacity and staffing levels. The Central Bank will expect firms to report to it on the implementation of these measures over the course of the year."

The review was conducted after the Central Bank set out its consumer protection expectations to the banks last June, with the lenders expected to take proactive action to manage customer service operations and resources to meet growing levels of demand.

"From our own review and the clear concerns expressed on social and other media it is clear that banks need to improve their performance in this area, so we have intervened to require this improvement to take place," said Colm Kincaid, Central Bank director of consumer protection.

"This is even more important given the planned departure of two banks from the Irish market. With these planned departures it is expected that the demand for customer services will increase across the banking sector as customers look to move accounts, access new services and seek information.

"It is the responsibility of banks to ensure that they have sufficient resources in place to help consumers navigate this significant change in our banking market, including meeting demand from both existing and new customers.”

Brian Hayes, CEO of the banking sector lobby Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI), partially blamed daily Covid-related absences of up to 25% for disruption, as bank call centres processed over 10m calls in 2021.

"The transition of well over 1m customer current and deposit accounts and millions of direct debits will be an unprecedented event in the history of Irish banking," he said of the KBC and Ulster Bank's impending exits.

"It will require the participation and support of multiple stakeholders across the economy, including the banking industry, regulatory authorities, utility companies, government departments and agencies, and employers working together."

Hayes added that the banks were working together to plan for the migration of "millions of accounts and direct debits" and that the task is "an absolute priority for the banking sector".

Photo: A customer service call centre. (Pic: Getty Images)