Bank clients, who have agreed to the three-month-moratorium on payment of their loans and leasing arrangements, have been wondering when is the moratorium going to expire.
The three-month moratorium, a measure taken to help citizens and the economy during the crisis and the state of emergency caused by the pandemic, will apply as of April 1 in accordance with a decision by the National Bank of Serbia (NBS). The moratorium would, therefore, cease to be valid from July, but not for all customers at the same time.
The NBS states that the moratorium lasts exactly 90 days and that clients, whose loan instalment expires on the 90th day, i.e. 30 June, should check at their bank branches whether or not they will have to pay it.
Discover the most important foreign investments in Serbia in 2019: click here!
No decision has been made regarding the moratorium for the economy branches that were devastated due to the pandemic lasting more than 90 days.
According to the information so far, this temporary measure will continue after June 1 and will last until the expiry of the 90-day period since it has been producing legal effects for the specific debtor. The exact date of its termination, however, is not the same in all cases.
Banks and financial leasing providers were obliged to publish notices of the moratorium on their official websites within three days of the decision coming into force, the NBS says. This was no later than 21 March 2020, while loan beneficiaries had ten days from the day of publication to reject the offer, and if they did not do so, the moratorium offer was deemed to have been accepted on that tenth day.
The moratorium began to produce legal effects at the expiry of ten days from the date of publication of the offer. In the interests of loan beneficiaries, banks have allowed the moratorium to apply even before the expiry of this period if the customer had explicitly requested it.
According to the latest information obtained from the banks, 93% of legal persons and 94% of natural persons accepted the delay in repaying debts.
The Association of Banks explains that, during this period the banks, should not collect any loan payments from those beneficiaries who have accepted the moratorium, such as instalments of real estate loans including cash, interest on permitted or not permitted losses. When the moratorium expires, the outstanding liabilities will be added to the principal debt and will be collected over the period that bank clients have to repay their loans plus three months.
(Vecernje Novosti, 26.05.2020)
This post is also available in: Italiano