The period is critical for the context of divestments to keep the Department headless
Loan restructurings and renegotiations reached €2 billion in the first half of 2023, compared to €900 million in the first half of 2022.
By Panagiotis Rougalas
For two months, the position of the Financial Commissioner, the Unified Body for the Out-of-Court Resolution of Financial Disputes, remains “orphaned”. The Body that receives complaints from consumers against financial enterprises for the purpose of settling disputes that may have consumers of services of financial enterprises against financial enterprises, remains “headless”. In a period of time when society has to face inflation, high interest rates and the foreclosure system in general is on the boil, the position of the president remains vacant and it remains unknown when he will be placed in charge. Especially in a critical period that has been given since July a 4-month moratorium on sales, so that by the end of October the Parliament can proceed with changes in the framework that will optimize the process. Within this framework, the expansion of the financial commissioner's capabilities is also on the table, and in fact there is no person who will hypothetically be given more capabilities/powers.
Based on the statute of the Institution, the term of office of the Commissioner and the assistant Commissioner is five years and may be renewed for one more term. This is what happened with the previous Financial Commissioner, Mr. Pavlos Ioannou, who held the position for 10 years. Mr. Ioannou, as “K” is able to know, proceeded with the interviews regarding the filling of the new position, and if he is finally selected for the Commissioner's position, it will be done through a “re-appointment” process. A total of 40 people entered the interview process and nine of them – with Mr. Ioannou being one of them – advanced to the final phase. Mr. Ioannou, however, is based on information the most favored person to take the position again. The appointment of the Financial Commissioner is now in the “hands” of President Christodoulidis, but questions arise as to why the process of appointing a person to such a critical post has taken so long, especially when the re-appointment of Ioannou is considered a given by political circles.
Restructurings and renegotiations in Cyprus this year have increased due to the difficulties created by rising interest rates. So the Financial Commissioner Agency should be paid as quickly as possible so that all available tools are in place. At the beginning of the week, the governor of the Central Bank, Mr. Konstantinos Herodotou, pointed out to the Parliament regarding loan restructurings and renegotiations that they reached 2 billion euros in the first half of 2023, compared to 900 million euros in the first half of 2022.< /p>
Long way to go
The non-performing loans in the banks may be 2.2 billion euros, but in the “system” the problem loans are many times more. The sales of loans by banks to credit recovery companies have not solved the problem, they have simply shifted it. All of the above, in a framework that receives frequent changes or attempted changes (every year or so). As a matter of fact, we are now in a process of changing it, with a horizon of October 2023. The total amount of non-performing loans of the Credit Acquisition Companies, at the end of March 2023, amounted to 22.5 billion euros, of which 21 billion euros, or 93% of all loans, the vast majority of which are in arrears for more than 5 years. As far as the banks are concerned, out of the total amount of 24.4 billion Euros granted in loans until the end of March 2023, an amount of 2.2 billion Euros concerns NDEs, or in other words 9% of all loans. Of the total of 2.2 billion euros of non-performing loans, 28% or loans worth 624 million euros are overdue for less than 1 year, while 9% or loans amounting to 191 million euros are not serviced for 1 to 2 years. Loans worth 586 million euros, or 27%, do not service their installments for 2 to 5 years, while 228 million euros, or 10% of loans, for a period of 5 to 7 years. Finally, loans of 573 million euros, or 26% are not serviced beyond 7 years.
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