Main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday called on Greece’s four systemic banks to include specific reward measures for conscientious borrowers in any new package aimed to reduce the Olympus-sized “mountain” of “bad debt” burdening their balance sheets.
His unprecedented proposal, by Greek standards, came during a meeting with the heads of the country’s systemic banks (National, Eurobank, Piraeus and Alpha) and the leadership of the Hellenic Bank Association (HBA).
The meeting comes after an agreement, in principle, last week between the leftist Tsipras government and the four lenders to establish a new legal framework to protect private residences from creditors, as the current framework expires at the end of this month.
“We fully acknowledge the need for a framework of protection to exist for those (borrowers) that are truly in need, but we also want to discuss with you, how and in what manner to reward the borrowers, who amid the crisis and with great pain, were able to remain consistent vis-a-vis their obligations towards banks,” he said.
His proposal to banks’ CEOs was for a reasonable reduction of the interest rate on mortgages held by dependable lenders, with the framework of criteria to agreed to by the government and the HBA.
