Debt settlement mechanism progressing says Greek Finance Minister

Greek authorities are speeding up efforts to implementing a new out-of-court mechanism for debt settlement, with loans worth more than 20 billion euros currently at an advanced stage of the mechanism, of which 3.0 billion have been submitted covering 6,500 debtor applications, Greek Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters, during a news conference together with Private Debt Management special secretary Marialena Athanasopoulou, Staikouras said the pace of application completion is progressing rapidly in the last few weeks.

“Building on intense efforts by all participants in the last few weeks, more than 200 applications were completed on a weekly basis, with an average debt level of more than 200 million euros. So far, 425 applications were successful of which 288 from banks and services and 137 from the state. These debt settlements offered a haircut of up to 33% while the average duration of payment settlement was 253 months,” he said.

He noted, however, that 1,200 applications were still pending, accounting for more than 1.0 billion euros in debt and stressed that the average rate of approval was 46% -a worrying rate- and noted that was significant room of improvement on the creditor side. [AMNA]