Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, during the European Economic Congress in Katowice, proposed a four-point plan which “will ease borrowers of PLN credits and help them get through this difficult time of increased interest rates”.
The head of government proposed the so-called credit holidays in 2022 and 2023 for all borrowers who will have difficulties “in balancing household budgets and who will want to use such loan holidays”.
One loan installment in the quarter in 2022 and 2023 will be postponed for repayment without interest, i.e. a total of 8 loan installments in this period. “If someone pays a loan installment today, for example PLN 1,500 and this installment was raised to PLN 2,400 – let’s assume by PLN 900 for four times a year, this loan installment of PLN 2,400 will be repaid without interest, so it will be a kind of credit holiday”, said Prime Minister Morawiecki.
He also informed that the government called for banks to develop a fairer mechanism for calculating loan costs than WIBOR. Therefore, from January 1, 2023, they will impose an obligation to use a transparent overnight deposit rate other than WIBOR.
In the prime minister’s opinion, the rate constructed in this way is “significantly more beneficial for all borrowers”. “Lenders, i.e. banks, will have to lower their margins” added Prime Minister.
Another point of the aid plan assumes that for those borrowers who will find themselves in a particularly difficult situation, for whom the loan installment will exceed 50% of income, or who become unemployed and cannot afford to pay off the loan, the banking sector will construct “a much more real and significantly larger fund to support borrowers.” Banks will have to allocate an additional amount of PLN 1.4 billion to this fund.
Finally, the fourth point of the plan is to strengthen the resilience of the entire banking sector by establishing an aid fund in the amount of PLN 3.5 billion. “It will be a fund supplied with the profits of commercial banks”, announced Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
Adrian Andrzejewski