The economic vice president, Nadia Calvinoha summoned to the three bank employers –AEB, CECA and Unacc– the next June 29 (unless plans change, just a week before the start of the election campaign) to analyze the degree of compliance of the plan to help mortgaged in distress that the government and the industry they agreed last autumn, as well as plans to improve access to financial services for the elderly and in rural Spain, as confirmed by various sources to this newspaper. The figures of applications and grant of mortgage relief measures are being very inferior to those originally planned, with which in the sector it is feared that the Executive wants to take advantage of it to launch some message or pressure measurementalthough his margin of acting looks limited due to the proximity of the elections.
At the first follow-up meeting of the three codes of good practice agreed last year by Economy and banking, held in March, the ministry left the open door to Modify the mortgage plan. “In the month of June, an evaluation of the code of good practices for mortgage relief will be carried out to identify possible improvements and, in particular, review application thresholds In light of the evolution of interest rateswages and other relevant variables,” he pointed out in a Press release.
The inclusion of the possibility of modify the criteria that must be met by potential beneficiaries angered the bank, since it was not agreed. In April, in fact, the Chairwoman of the patronal AEB made public the rejection from sector to reopen the plan. “It is essential that the agreement be fulfilled, that do not questionthat changes that generate uncertainty or expectations that affect the culture of payment”, defended Alejandra Kindelanwho in particular claimed “not to generate uncertainty by talking about change the conditions and the thresholds”.
uncertain outcome
After the call for the general electionsthe bank thought that Calviño I was not going to call him finally to the meeting, since the figures of the mortgage plan are going to be low and the creation of the Financial Client Defense Authority -demanded by the other participants in the previous meeting: the elderly associations and the consumer association Asufin- has decayed a few days before being approved due to the dissolution of the Cortes. The fact that he has finally summoned him to the headquarters of the ministry in the middle of the pre-campaign has caused concern in the sector. “we fear any surprisealthough his margin of acting is low for the elections”, financial sources point out.
After the approval of the plan in November, the Government pointed out that it could benefit “more than one million homes vulnerable or at risk of vulnerability” due to the rise in the euribor. In private, yes, he acknowledged that it was an estimate of the potential beneficiaries, not the predictable ones. In April, along these lines, the Bank of Spain calculated in about 200,000 the homes it really is expected that finally benefit of the measures. The ministry then argued that the economyemployment, inflation and family income were evolving better than expected in November thanks to the Executive’s economic policy, and it cannot be ruled out that he will now use similar arguments again.
alternative solutions
Related news
Between January and the beginning of March, the entities barely received 9,000 requests of adhesion to the mortgage plan. The Bank of Spain -which from the beginning has been in favor of focusing aid on the most vulnerable mortgaged people- is collecting of the banks updated information so that it can be used for the meeting on June 29. According to industry sources, the figure will only increase until it reaches a few tens of thousands. The economy, bank sources argue, is doing better than expected and delinquency or the payment problems they haven’t just arrived.
In addition, a very significant percentage of the requests are rejected for not meeting the requirements (for example, for being for a second residence). To avoid giving a distorted imagethe bank is also collecting data on how many of the mortgagees whose application is rejected are being offered a loan by the entities standalone and alternative solution those provided for in the code of good practice.