Bank of Ireland has today apologised to customers after an error led it to apply the wrong interest rate code to children's bank accounts over a five-year period.
The bank said that the incorrect rate of interest had been applied to 16,000 accounts opened during the period May 2003 to February 2008.
The Young Saver Accounts (formerly called Rainbow Accounts) are aimed at teaching those aged 13 years and under the value of saving.
Bank of Ireland said it is in the process of refunding the interest to each customer together with an
adjustment to take account of inflation.
It said the average refund per customer is €12.50 while the total amount of the refunds is estimated to be €200,000.
Bank of Ireland said procedures have been put in place to prevent the error occurring again.
