Social Media Monitoring

The Central Bank uses third party suppliers to monitor publicly available social media and online platforms. Monitoring social media also allows us to identify online trends regarding financial services and products. It can also help inform our supervisory themes and inspection programmes to assess the conduct of firms towards their customers.

We scan publicly available online postings made by consumers, potential customers and representatives of regulated firms, and other stakeholders including media.

The posts could be on:

• Social media platforms
• Blogs
• Discussion forums.

Posts are monitored in real-time against a list of keywords and financial services firms that are active in the Irish market. The list is updated on a regular basis and includes references to various financial products and services.

This allows us to observe what people are saying about financial services and products and identify potential issues of concern.

The information compiled is then used to prepare reports which we categorise by topic, firm name, product sector and social media channel. Our monitoring can also be tailored to identify whether conversations about financial firms and products are an expression of dissatisfaction, or just part of a more general discussion.