Laws creating a permanent “social security safety net” to support vulnerable bank debtors will be prepared by next November, Economy, Development and Tourism Minister George Stathakis said in an interview with the Sunday edition of the newspaper “Ethnos”.
Outlining the main features of this safety net, he said it would include local “information centres on debt” that will be run by all the agencies involved and offer borrowers free advice concerning their rights and obligations – and also their options – when it comes to handling their debts.
The same centres will provide comprehensive data on non-performing loans, creating a data bank for each region, while the labour ministry was setting up a legal framework for a social protection network, the minister explained.
Stathakis also referred to plans for a state-run Credit and Wealth Service that will have complete information on the assets of each borrower – currently only available to courts. He said this will be an important and objective tool for determining a borrower’s ability to pay off loans, while at the same time protecting personal privacy and placing the loan onto an evaluation scale.
“Put simply, the borrower that wants to reschedule a loan or renegotiate a new one can turn to the Credit and Wealth Service, which will rate his credit ability. With this credit rating, he or she will then apply to the bank, which will not be able to dispute the borrower’s credit ability,” he said.
On the lifting of capital controls, Stathakis linked this to the recapitalisation of the banks, noting that this was currently expected to take place by the end of the year.
(Source: ANA-MPA)
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