The Irish Banking Federation (IBF) wants the Financial Regulator to name and shame members who break rules so that specific violations by individual institutions don't blacken the reputations of other banks.

"Too often when specific issues are found by the regulator, there is a general condemnation," said an IBF spokesman. "The regulator needs to have the courage to name institutions."

The request comes after the regulator issued a press release last month expressing "concern" at the way banks were handling customers switching from tracker mortgages to other types of mortgages, despite its investigation not finding "any evidence that customers were being offered incentives to move off tracker mortgages".

One lender was found to have broken rules and is being pursued, but the case is unlikely to merit administrative sanctions, so nobody will be named, according to a spokeswoman at the Financial Regulator.

Getting the regulator publicly to name rule-breakers is easier said than done, however. Under current EU and Irish legislation, the regulator is barred from identifying such firms unless they are under administrative sanction – a formal rebuke that can carry fines of up to €5m.

Minor infractions discovered in the course of routine on-site inspections or themed investigations are not usually pursued through this mechanism, so any naming and shaming could be done only with the consent of the firm in question, the spokeswoman said.

Under the current protocol, regulatory officials will re-inspect firms that break rules and issue an industry letter with a general warning on the bad practices involved.

Late last year, Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan said he was trying to change the restrictions on naming authorised firms, as they "go well beyond what is necessary or appropriate for the purpose of ensuring privacy of customers and commercial interests".

The rules have prevented public-interest information – such as the identities of the 10 so-called 'golden circle' investors in Anglo Irish Bank – from being publicly revealed by the Central Bank or Financial Regulator.

It is understood Central Bank lawyers have been working with the Department of Finance to get changes introduced in the second Central Bank reform bill.

Financial ombudsman Bill Prasifka, whose office is also covered by the naming restriction, has also called for a change to the rule.

But regulatory sources said that although Irish law "provides a number of gateways or opportunities to disclose confidential information", EU rules forbidding such disclosures take precedence.