Personal Insolvency and the Swiss Franc crisis
The crisis prompted by the recent soaring of the Swiss Franc exchange rate against the Romanian Leu is affecting thousands of Romanians who have contracted loans in that currency.
România Internațional, 21.01.2015, 13:21
Romania is one of the EU Member States that still don’t have a Personal Insolvency legislation in place. The draft law on this topic came through the Senate and on Wednesday it was submitted for debate to the Judicial Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, against the backdrop of the crisis triggered by the record-high exchange rate of the Swiss Franc against the Romanian Leu. The crisis has affected thousands of Romanians who have taken out loans in this currency.
Previously, the Liberal opposition called for a special Parliament session to adopt this bill aimed at helping Romanians with loans in hard currency. Before being submitted to Parliament for debate, the Committee will draft a report on the bill. Steering this project through Parliament as quickly as possible is an option agreed on by all political factions, both in power and opposition. The chairman of the Judicial Committee Bogdan Ciuca says there are four existing draft laws on this topic and that judicial experts will cluster all positive elements from the four documents into a single draft law, to be advanced to the Chamber of Deputies some time next week.
Bogdan Ciuca: “I believe a reasonable deadline for submitting this report is next Tuesday. We will coalesce four documents into a single one. Three of them will be rejected. All the positive elements in these projects will be included in the final document.”
Former Finance Minister Liberal MP Gheorghe Ialomitianu says Parliament could support those affected by the Swiss Franc crisis by quickly adopting the personal insolvency law. The Liberal MP explained how this law helps people who have fallen behind with loan payments, including due to losing their job.
Gheorghe Ialomitianu: “First of all, natural persons will no longer be subject to foreclosures, namely losing their house or being forced to refund payments at this record-high exchange rate. Thy can renegotiate their debt. Natural persons will be able to schedule their payments depending on their creditworthiness”.
The Chamber of Deputies’ Budget and Finance Committee is also examining the possibility to extend the provisions of last year’s ordinance to Swiss Franc loan-takers, granting tax deductions for rescheduling the repayment of loans for people with gross incomes below 450 euros. People with loans in the Swiss currency have called on the Government and Parliament to adopt a draft law whereby banks may swap their clients’ foreign currency loans for national currency loans, at the exchange rate at the time when the loan was contracted, plus a maximum 20%, with a similar interest rate and no additional guarantees.
