Special Secretariat for Private Debt Management

The new favorable regulations in the framework of the BRIDGE 2 Program, for the benefit of small and medium enterprises, were announced by the Minister of Finance, Mr. Christos Staikouras.

Property auctions can resume in full as of June 1, according to a Justice Ministry bill scheduled to be tabled in Parliament in the next few days, unless the course of the pandemic dictates otherwise.

The government is expected to extend a recent measure offering relief from the effects of the coronavirus crackdown by suspending tax and social security payments so as to include those due by the end of April as it becomes increasingly apparent that conditions will not revert to normal next month.

The first state subsidy for the protection of a borrower's primary residence was approved on Wednesday, four months after he submitted his application.

More than 19,000 applications have been submitted by indebted homeowners seeking to protect their property from being seized since the new system went online 11 weeks ago.

The process for companies to sign up for the out-of-court debt settlement scheme after the recent launch of the online platform allowing firms to apply has proved difficult and time-consuming.

In a bid to spot strategic defaulters ahead of the extrajudicial settlement process, authorities in cooperation with banks are planning to create an asset register for debtors that will even include money forwarded abroad over the last five years.

Government’s final draft includes details of the non-performing loans (“red loans”) and indebted households without, though, being approved by the lenders.

The draft provides a transitory period for non-performing loans, whether they remain in banks or are transferred to non-banking financial companies.