More flexibility in debt settlement through extrajudicial mechanism provide for improvements promoted by the Ministry of Finance, with a special provision filed in parliament and which aim to increase applications as well as regulations.

The amount of debts repaid to date reaches 1.1 billion euros, and the goal of the ministry is to increase the amount of new agreements in the next five months to 1.6-2 billion euros.

1. Includes debtors with only one debt to one creditor. To date, a debtor is not allowed to apply to an out-of-court mechanism if 90% of his total debt is owed to one financial institution. This has been removed.

2. Membership in legal entities that do not pursue financial goals, but conduct economic activities, such as foundations, charitable organizations, etc.

3. Inclusion of debts to third parties that are collected by the tax administration, for example, debts to municipalities that are certified and collected through AADE.

4. Retention of an informed or already settled and informed debt in an offer of settlement on conditions. Until today, in order to join the extrajudicial mechanism, one had to pay off all one’s debts. Thus, if he already had a regulated loan, for example, a mortgage in a bank and two other consumer loans in other banks or management companies, he could not settle them, since the bank will not give consent to the restructuring of the mortgage when it is serviced. usually. He will now be able to settle his remaining debts out of court, provided that the total increase in the amount he has to pay does not exceed 15% of the amount he has paid to date.

Also provided:

The penalty for early repayment of debt to the state is cancelled.

• Elimination of the penalty for early repayment of debts to the state and reduction of the interest rate to adjust these debts from the current euribor rate of +5% to the rate of euribor +3%. Recall that since October last year, reduced spreads also apply to loans regulated by banks and management companies. In particular, for loans with a mortgage, agreements are concluded with euribor +2.50%, and for loans without mortgages with euribor +3%.

• A transitional provision allowing them to file a new out-of-court claim without the expiration of the 12-month time limit for debt settlement in favor of third parties (which can now be filed out of court) . With a new application, the settlement of debts to the state and insurance funds that were confirmed before its submission or that were changed for any reason can also be requested.

• A transitional provision allowing debtors who did not withdraw their previous out-of-court application under Law 4469/2017 in time or filed an application for inclusion could submit a new application out of court without the expiration of the 12-month period for inclusion in the procedure under Law 4469/ 2017 and for whatever reason, no debt restructuring agreement was reached.

• Mandatory rationale for disagreement with the regulation proposal generated by the algorithm, both from financial institutions and debtors, and public posting of the rationale on the platform. The associations of financial authorities (EET and EEDADP) will inform about the reasons for disagreement. According to the record of the extrajudicial mechanism, out of the 1.8 billion euros assessed by financial institutions, 66% have been approved, i.е. 1.2 billion euros, and one of the main reasons for the refusal is the failure to submit an application on the part of the co-debtor / co-guarantor, as well as the fact that the debtor has already paid off one of its debts. Publicizing the reason for the rejection of the ruling will help increase the efficiency of the institution by increasing the approval rate. A corresponding obligation to disclose the reason why they are withdrawing from an agreement is now also set for debtors who show even higher rates of withdrawal. According to the platform, out of 2.7 billion euros of debts for which regulation was proposed, 56%, that is, 1.5 billion euros, were accepted by the debtors.

• An increase in the limit on the value of movable property, for which a responsible declaration of its value is sufficient, from 10,000 to 50,000 euros.

Finally, it is clarified that the legal consequences, i.e. the suspension of enforcement measures, apply with the final application to the out-of-court mechanism, while maintaining the provision prohibiting entering into proceedings three months before the date of the auction.