A new plan for suspension of installments, under terms and conditions, and with a more targeted character is under discussion and is a measure – antidote for businesses and households that will be affected by the second lockdown, which is expected to be announced today and valid until the end of the month.
According to information from “F”, the Ministry of Finance was feverishly examining various scenarios yesterday, in order to help thousands of companies (or even natural persons) that will take down rolling stock by the end of January and will have trouble paying installments.
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Based on what has been discussed in recent days and will probably be finalized today or at the beginning of next week at the latest, those who have exercised the right of suspension for a period of nine months will not be entitled to a new suspension. In these cases, those borrowers who will have a repayment problem, the solution will be loan restructuring, in consultation with the banks.
The new moratorium on payment of installments will probably be valid for a period of 6 months and will mainly cover companies that will be forced to suspend operations, with the new decree to be issued by the Ministry of Health after the decisions that are expected to be taken today. The suspension will also apply to loans secured by the main residence, worth up to 350,000 euros.
It is also possible that the new moratorium on installments will include some categories of beneficiaries that were covered by the relevant decrees of 2020, but did not complete 9 months of suspension of their installments. For example, they applied in June 2020 and did not retroactively request the installments they paid for a period of up to 9 months.
Parties and the business world have stepped up political pressure in recent days to decide to extend the installments, especially in vulnerable sectors of the economy and in companies that have been hit hard by the effects of the restrictions. Banks were on the lookout to help their customers after the suspension was lifted by the restructuring method, so as not to launch non-performing loans.
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The new promotional freeze of business activity accelerated the developments and the plans. Small and large retail companies (clothing and footwear) are expected to roll down or record a new large reduction in their turnover, while several self-employed will suspend their work (hairdressers, beauty salons). The new lockout finds the banks with problem loans of € 6.5 billion (last available data for August 2020) and the total restructured loans reach € 4.18 billion. The banks had reached a moratorium on loans worth € 12 billion. With the information of “F”, the concerns of the banks intensify that the new lockdown will consist of many small and medium enterprises, which were already facing problems or will inflate the problems of others. And of course, it is not only companies that will be hit by the lockdown but also thousands of employees that will be temporarily out of work or with reduced incomes, but their loan installments will run.
