Staikouras urges servicers to resolve private debt problem
Finance Minister Christos Staikouras urged servicers and other creditors to align their operations with the state towards an efficient and sustainable management of the private debt problem.
One of the government’s priorities since the beginning of its term is the maximum possible effort to address that problem, he said on Thursday. Speaking in Parliament, Staikouras said that private arrears fell to 63.6% in the first half of 2022 from 70% in 2018, while the Greek private debt as a percentage of GDP fell to 125.5%, down from an European average of 162.5%.
He noted that NPLs fell to 10% of loan portfolios at the end of the first half of 2022, from 44% in 2019, with the help of the “Hercules” program. However, Staikouras stressed that despite a restructuring of banks’ balance sheets, private debt remained high, with NPLs held by banks totaling 15 billion euros and NPLs held by servicers totaling €87 billion.
He noted there was increased interest by civilians seeking a debt settlement through an out-of-court platform and said that he expected all related financial agencies to complete procedures. He stressed, however, that creditors continued rejecting a large volume of debt settlement requests and said there was significant room of improvement in this area.
