The special liquidators of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation have secured court orders approving a process to repay an estimated €100 million in overcharged interest by the former Anglo Irish Bank. The orders were sought arising from a High Court finding of 2011 that the bank had overcharged John Morrissey, Palmerston Road, Ranelagh, €143,676 in interest on an overall sum of some €31.6 million allegedly owed to it.

The High Court found that the overcharging arose from the bank’s misinterpretation of the terms and conditions of loan interest which were common to the vast majority of its commercial loans. The liquidators took legal advice following that judgment and were advised that borrowers who were overcharged interest were entitled to have claims corresponding to the overcharged amount admitted in the special liquidation of the bank.

It set up a remediation team to deal with the matter and it had found 6,435 borrowers with 15,571 accounts which were affected. Based on the team’s work to date, it is estimated that the potential total refund could be about €100 million, Kieran Wallace, joint special liquidator, said in court documents. In those circumstances, Michael Collins SC, for Mr Wallace, applied at the Commercial Court yesterday to Mr Justice Brian McGovern to approve directions for the remediation process.

Those directions included approval for various assumptions that the court was told will have to be made given existing data limitations, including assumptions where the likely refund sums are sufficiently low such as not to merit time and money being spent on the individual examination of files.