Banks have already received thousands of requests to correct installment loans

According to representatives of major banks at the Future Banking conference, banks have already received thousands of requests for fixed installment home loan, and for a lower amount than the current one.

BCP has already received about 2,000 requests, bank President Miguel Maia said, adding that many payments have already been corrected, while BPI has already received 1,500 requests, according to administrator Francisco Barbeyra.

According to President Paulo Macedo, Caixa Geral de Depósitos initially received an average of 50 requests per day, and more recently about 80 requests per day.

According to administrator Luis Ribeiro, Novo Banco received almost 100 requests a day.

Santander Totta did not give specific figures, given that its president Pedro Castro y Almeida believes many people are still waiting for rates to fall before deciding whether to proceed with the request.

With the rise in Euribor rates (accompanying the rise in European Central Bank policy rates) credit has become more expensive, so the government has created a mechanism, in place since 2 December, in which customers with mortgages can contact their bank to access a scheme that locks in installments of their mortgage over two year and for a lesser amount than the current amount.

The contribution will be indexed to 70% of the six-month average Euribor amount of the month preceding the client’s request (ensuring that he will pay less over two years than if the Euribor had been reflected at 100%). The unpaid amount will have to be paid later, to which interest will be added.

However, at a conference this Thursday organized by Jornal de Negócios and Claranet, when asked about loan defaults, the presidents of CGD and Santander Totta said that for the moment there are no serious problems, but that as bad debts develop there will be The evolution of interest rates, especially unemployment, is important.

“The most important variable is employment. If the unemployment rate remains in double digits, even with lower interest rates, that will have a serious impact” on customers’ ability to repay loans, Castro e Almeida said.

Regarding the political crisis, bankers reiterated what they said last week about the importance of stability in governance and the balance of government accounts.

The president of Santander Totta (owned by the Spanish Santander group) believed that it is this sanitation that brings “many companies” to Portugal, and criticized what is happening in Spain, given that in the neighboring country “a populist government is coming to power, which will increase taxes on large companies, for wealth” and that anything that is “unstable will be paid on time.”

Regarding the controversy surrounding Bank of Portugal chief Mario Centeno, whom António Costa has spoken of as his successor as prime minister, most bank managers did not want to comment.

For his part, CGD President Paulo Macedo reiterated that Centeno is a “serious and competent governor,” as he said last week, and that “one thing does not affect the other, according to public information,” which is the topic.

Macedo also said that replacing the head of the Bank of Portugal will not be easy, contrary to what appears from several public statements.

“In Portugal there are not five people who can play this role well, sometimes it seems that it could even be Joaquim or Manel,” he said.