Since Friday (July 29), people who hold a mortgage in złoty for their own housing needs have been able to suspend repayments for up to four months this year and four months next year. During a single quarter, repayments can be suspended for a maximum of two months.
The prime minister said that the program would cost the banking sector up to $4.3 billion (20 billion złoty) over two years. He also reaffirmed the warnings of the head of Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), Tomasz Chróstny, who cautioned banks last month against making it unnecessarily difficult for people to take advantage of the legislation.
Read on: Polish Banks Face Fines if They Inhibit Mortgage Payment Holiday Scheme
“I am very pleased that so many people have already taken advantage of the government’s credit holidays,” said Morawiecki during a press conference on Tuesday. “Any attempt to restrict the use of this facility will be penalized.”
“Any practice along the lines of introducing cumbersome procedures, scaring people with reduced credit scores, is inappropriate. I have ordered particular scrutiny of such situations,” he said.
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Faced with Poland’s highest inflation in 25 years, the central bank has been raising interest rates, which are currently at 6.50%, the highest level since February 2005. With the rise in rates, borrowers’ repayments and banks’ profits have increased significantly.
Data from the Bank Guarantee Fund (BGK), an institution that monitors commercial and cooperative banks on an ongoing basis, shows that the net profit of the entire financial sector in Poland for the first five months of the year more than doubled year-on-year to $2.6 billion (12.1 billion złoty).
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