Participation in the auction issue has a domino effect on the culture of payments, on loan agreements and, more broadly, on the financial system in the midst of efforts to restore investment grade. The reason was the decision of the Supreme Court, which ruled that management companies (servicers) are not entitled to resort to coercive actions, including auctions for their securitizations. The ruling stands in stark contrast to two subsequent Supreme Court rulings and was cemented by the government’s reluctance to address the issue institutionally, filling a legislative gap between the two securitization laws, which caused confusion.

An issue that legal circles believed could be settled with an interpretative clause that bridged the institutional gap between the two laws (3156 of 2003 and 4904 of 2015) turned into a major political issue when the opposition abandoned the government in as a fiduciary. funds. The criticism touched on sharp government reflexes in the midst of the pre-election period, and also coincided with the Treasury’s strong objections to an out-of-court mechanism on “whether management companies are worth it under the circumstances.” , according to the characteristic phrase of the competent Minister of Finance, and make substantial loan arrangements before proceeding with the auction.

Disagreement over two different things that coincided and were fatally related to each other led to the decision that the final decision on the legality of holding auctions by management companies should not be given by law, but should be sought in the Plenum of the Supreme Court. This decision, according to lawyers, will require several months of maintaining a delay critical for legal certainty, while at the same time, according to market sources, the consequences of this uncertainty have begun to manifest themselves in everyday settlement practice. private debt of about 100 billion euros.

Already, some courts of first instance of the country do not accept applications for payment orders, declaring a kind of refusal.

Judging by the information, already some courts of first instance in the country do not accept applications for payment orders with a statement of some kind of denial, while while uncertainty remains, it is highly possible that a wave of challenge will come even with claims about auctions that have already taken place in the past. Such a development, as the leaders of the service sector explain, will not only stop enforcement measures and auctions, but will also affect the regulation itself, as it will affect the payment culture, which, after much effort, has been restored to a large extent in our country. “Without the threat of coercive measures, many debtors will turn away from the agreements, once again creating the ground for strategic defaulters,” the head of one of the country’s largest management companies explains to K, noting that this will be beneficial mainly to entrepreneurs with large debts who systematically bypass rules and resort to objections in the courts.

Indeed, similar legal material is being created around the similar interests of large business, as a result of which several law firms are preparing to take advantage of the uncertainty that will be created before the final resolution of the issue, which, most likely, will rehabilitate management companies in terms of the legitimacy that they have to exercise active management of assumed debts, i.e. for the direct implementation of enforcement actions. After all, this is what the Supreme Court ruled with two other related decisions it issued, and in fact at a later time than the contested one, that questioned that right.

According to marketers, the uncertainty created for the auctions opens the Eolos bag not only for NPL managers, but also for banks that sold NPLs by transferring them through the “Hercules” scheme to funds, but in their books there are older tickets issued within the framework of securitization with a guarantee of the Greek state. Given that securitization business plans are periodically monitored to determine if collection targets are being met, the prospect of losing their independent credit rating due to their poor recovery performance, which ranges from 20% to 40% based on auctions – depending on the specific securitization – more visible than ever. This risk, as competent sources explain, will not leave the priority securities that banks have in their accounts unused, even at a time when discussions are open with Eurostat on whether the guarantees of 18.7 billion euros provided by the state, in total securitization of 47.9 billion euros, must be registered in public debt.