Little uptake of protection scheme so far
The government is trying to maintain the interest of borrowers wishing to protect their primary residences in the online platform for that purpose ahead of December 31, when the favorable protection status with a state subsidy expires.
On Wednesday Finance Minister Christos Staikouras announced a number of additional technical improvements to the system that make it easier to submit applications.
After the submission of barely 300 applications, the government will try to improve the procedure to attract more debtors to the asset protection scheme, combined with the prospect of reforming the bankruptcy law for individuals which the government must implement by the end of the year, according to the country’s post-bailout obligations.
The new bankruptcy law that the government needs to draft should be much stricter and less generous than the regulations and write-offs of loans that the Katseli law provided for. The fact that this will coincide with the expiry of the operation of the online platform will create a potentially explosive situation from January with more home foreclosures and the securitization of nonperforming loans the banks are planning for 2020.
