Lalovac announces mortgage credit bill

Finance Minister Boris Lalovac announced on Wednesday that the government could put forward a special mortgage credit bill to solve the problems caused by the increase in repayment instalments of Swiss franc-denominated loans.

"Unless the banks propose a solution soon, I will meet with the prime minister and propose a special mortgage credit bill," Lalovac told the press. "If no such proposal is made by June, I will propose that we put forward a special bill to regulate when a person can be evicted, how they can obtain a loan and so on," he added.

Lalovac said that such a law should be passed anyway, regardless of progress in negotiations between the banks, the government and debtors with CHF-indexed loans. He said that the government would draft such a bill during the summer recess and that it might be introduced into Parliament in September.

Lalovac said that it turned out that the banks had not managed their risks appropriately and that citizens should not be the only ones to bear the consequences of that. He said he found it "totally unacceptable" that people now owed more than they had when they started paying off their loans.

Asked to comment on the minister's announcement, Croatian Banking Association (HUB) Director Zoran Bohacek told Hina that the government had to pass a mortgage credit bill because that was required by the European Union's Mortgage Credit Directive.

HUB supports such a law because the existing law on consumer credit does to apply to mortgages. Bohacek said that the European directive clearly defines currency relations and variable interest rates.

Asked when the banks could come out with their proposal, Bohacek said that the matter was being discussed, noting that there was no pressure because the current freeze on the CHF-HRK exchange rate was in force until January. "What is important is that a good solution is found, which will be acceptable both to the government and the creditors," he said.

(Text and Photo: Hina) 

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