The absolute mess has prevailed in recent days with the clearing of deposits with non-performing loans of borrowers. The last act of the Cooperative Bank of Cyprus (CCB), shortly before it was locked in, was to seize 10.500 current borrowers' accounts in the loan agreements, which did not appear to include a clearing clause.
There is also information that in addition to the set-offs made on the current accounts of first-debtors, guarantor accounts were also affected.
The number of accounts affected was taken by the Financial-Economic Commissioner Pavlos Ioannou, who received thousands of complaints.
Affected people are in the two straits as they can not use credit cards and checkbooks.
In fact, STK did not inform the borrowers by personal letters or emails that it would "take" their deposits and transfer them to their loans. All he did was post a press release last week clarifying set-offs on the current accounts of debt borrowers.
The Cooperative, according to Mr. Ioannou, among others, proceeded to set off deposits of Minimum Guaranteed Income recipients, retirees and single parents, who receive assistance from the state. It also offset provident funds.
In at least one case, the Co-operation took deposits from the Provident Fund of the company's employees to cover a non-performing loan of the company itself. The case of the Community Council, which had "red" loans, was similarly handled, and the bank, in order to collect its receipts, made deposits in the employees' pension fund.
Many borrowers who had money left over for their children's education and others who made savings during difficult times were also exposed. Among those affected are employees of the former SKT. What is most outrageous, however, is the fact that SKT, as the victims complain, was hiding behind the Hellenic Bank, accusing it of having this responsibility for the offsets. This was rejected by Hellenic Bank, which stressed that it has no involvement in the matter.
The telephones of the Out-of-Court Dispute Resolution Body of Financial-financial nature caught fire while the President was also informed about the matter. The Financial-Economic Commissioner stated that a series of irregularities and illegalities were recorded, stressing that he is in contact with the leaders of the former SKT, in order to find a solution.
As Mr. Ioannou clarified, in cases where the offset was provided for in the loan agreement, there is nothing wrong with that.
The set-off, he added, "is allowed in any contract there is this term, meaning that no one interferes in accounts for which such a thing is prohibited, e.g. pension funds, pensions, grants from the state, but these unfortunately happened. "
In fact, he did not rule out the possibility of addressing the Attorney General Costas Clerides to advise him on further handling of cases. "If there are no solutions today to rectify the situation, I will consult the Attorney General," he said.
It should be noted that 5.500 set-offs were made, which were provided for in the loan agreements and which are not considered illegal.
Borrowers do not know where their loans ended up
Borrowers of the former Co-operation are running from one bank to another, asking to pay their loans. However, they have been surprised as the cashiers of the former branches of the Cooperative Bank of Cyprus (SKT) and now the Hellenic Bank, inform them that they can not collect to repay their loans.
In particular, the employees locate the name of the borrowers in the computer system, however this does not allow them to make the transaction. And all this for a reason unknown until yesterday. The bank's cashiers told the borrowers that they did not know if their loans were transferred to the Agency, ie to the Cypriot Asset Management Company KEDIPES, to which all non-performing loans of SKT were transferred.
The loans that are "ignored", are mainly loans that were restructured before the deal between SKT and Hellenic Bank and may be considered high risk. In fact, some bankers have been urging borrowers to repay their loans within a week, even though they may be charged for the delay.
However, employees were not able to provide sufficient information to the borrowers, some of whom went to up to three different stores to pay their installments.
Many borrowers are outraged by the amateurism with which the issue is dealt with. As they stated in "F", before the absorption of SKT's operations by the Hellenic Bank, the management of Synergatiki had to inform them about where their loans would end up in order to know where they would go to pay them. All this takes place a few days after the issue of offsets.
In the meantime, despite our repeated efforts, no one from KEDISEP contacted us and provided information and clarifications about what happened.
In Parliament, the offset is offset
The issue of clearing accounts in the former Cooperative Cyprus Bank (SKT) is going to the Parliament on the initiative of AKEL. Members of the party on behalf of their parliamentary group requested the registration of an issue in the Parliamentary Audit Committee under the title: the banks ".
According to MPs Stefanos Stefanou, Irini Charalambidou and Skei Koutra - Koukouma, "lately, complaints from citizens about abusive decisions by banks are increasing.
In particular, the complaints concern decisions either for arbitrary charges, or for arbitrary offsets, or for changing the terms of contracts, or for increasing the cost of services provided and others ". They add that, among others, the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance should be invited to a higher level, the Competition Commission, the Financial Commissioner, the Cyprus Banking Association, borrowers' associations and organizations, consumer associations, POVEK and others.
The offsetting of deposits and loans of SKT customers was also condemned by EDEK. As, as he states, they were made without taking into account the rights of consumers, contrary to the rules of financial transparency and to the detriment of the financial situation of a number of citizens - depositors.
The Citizens' Alliance in their announcement refers to offsets - express that were made without giving room for reaction and that were based on abusive clauses. "Now the results of the voting of the bills for the Cooperation by DISY-DIKO-EDEK and ELAM have begun to appear", they add.
According to the Alliance, "unfortunately this unjust event is added to a series of other heterogeneous manipulations of the Anastasiadis-DISY Government that, with contractors and in cooperation with other parties, support the banks and not the citizens".
Ecologists talk about lost interest, the process of mediating the summer season and unfair practices.
"We are also particularly impressed by the information on the offsetting of loans and deposits without the consent of consumers," they say, adding that the Movement warned "as the bills for the sale of the Co-operation, as we said, were made a few days ago and with many vague reports." and handwritten. That is, they had not been prepared for a long time and with due importance and weight, as the Governments claimed ".