Socialists seek termination of EBRD agreement to benefit forex debtors

The opposition Socialists have proposed that parliament should terminate an agreement between the government and the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development signed in 2015 because its stipulations were aimed at “benefitting banks to the detriment of forex debtors”.

László Szakács, deputy leader of the Socialist Party, told a press conference on Wednesday that the contested agreement ensured that “banks would not suffer any losses” through the conversion of forex loans to forint ones, while paving the way for the eviction of mortgage borrowers in arrears.

On Tuesday, the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, threw out an earlier court decision which ruled in favour of a forex loan-holder, thereby annulling the complainant’s loan agreement.

Concerning Tuesday’s ruling, Szakács accused the court of disregarding the relevant domestic and European Union laws that protect loan-holders “against the formidable power of the banks”.

Attorney László Ravasz, representing the Debtors’ Chamber, said that the Kúria had “used all the procedural tricks at its disposal” to evade the issue of whether the bank had adequately informed its clients about possible risks. He insisted that neither Hungarian nor European law permitted contracts if the client was not adequately informed.

“The Kúria’s failure to examine that issue was unlawful,” he added.

Source: MTI