Croatia: Foreign Currency Loans No Danger for Banks

Politics ♦ Published: August 5, 2013; 07:29 ♦ (Vindobona)

About 8% of the loan portfolio in Croatia consists of Swiss franc loans. Banks would be able to bear losses.

Croatia: Foreign Currency Loans No Danger for Banks / Picture: © Vindobona.org

In Croatia, about 100,000 borrowers took out a foreign currency loan in the years from 2000 to 2008. Now, about 75,000 borrowers are repaying foreign currency loans. Most of them took out Swiss franc loans and euro loans.

After 2008, interest payments went up suddenly. In spring, the Croat Commercial Court decided that banks did not inform their customers sufficiently. As a…