mBank increased the assumed number of court cases regarding loans in Swiss francs. In the report after the first half of 2021, the bank assumes that around 22 percent of foreign currency borrowers with both active and repaid loans have filed or filed a lawsuit against it. After the first quarter, the forecasts were about 18 percent of franchise holders.
mBank announced that by the end of June it had received 229 final judgments in individual cases, out of which 79 were favorable for the bank, and 150 were unfavorable. The bank informed that at the same time 367 proceedings before the courts of second instance were suspended due to legal issues referred to the Supreme Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union.
mBank informed that at the end of the second quarter there were 10,568 individual court proceedings initiated by its clients in relation to CHF loan agreements. This means that in the second quarter alone, 1,587 inquiries were added. The total value of the claims is PLN 2,424.2 million.
The bank assumes that about 22 percent. foreign currency borrowers, i.e. 18.6 thousand borrowers who have both active and repaid loans have filed or filed a lawsuit against them. “This assumption, due to significant legal uncertainty regarding CHF-related matters, as well as other external factors that may affect clients’ preferences as regards filing claims, is highly subjective and may be subject to future adjustments,” mBank wrote in the semi-annual report.
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mBank – franchise holders
At the same time, the bank announced that it had not made a decision to offer agreements to clients as proposed by the Chairman of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, nor had it taken any steps to obtain any corporate approvals on this matter.
“This will be the subject of further analysis and discussion with supervisory authorities. The Bank did not take into account the proposal of the Chairman of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority in the amount of the impact of legal risk related to the portfolio of loans indexed to foreign currency,” the report wrote.
The carrying amount of mBank’s mortgage and housing loans granted to individual customers is PLN 11 billion. The costs of legal risk related to foreign currency loans in the second quarter amounted to PLN 248.5 million, compared to PLN 189 million in the previous year and PLN 66.3 million in the first quarter. These costs were at the level previously reported by the bank.
Settlements with franchisees
The president of Santander Bank Polska, Michał Gajewski, announced last week that the bank is testing settlements with Swiss franc borrowers. In turn, PKO BP is conducting a pilot of the solution, assuming two paths of offering settlements. “The first involves directing settlements to clients who are in court disputes with the bank – in such a situation, the settlement is concluded before a common court. The second path involves negotiating the terms of the settlement before the Arbitration Court at the PFSA and if the parties reach an agreement, the settlement is signed at the bank’s branch “- explained in the reply sent to us recently. At the same time, PKO BP wants to start the process of converting CHF loans for a wide group of customers in the fall.
The president Brunon Bartkiewicz announced in mid-April that ING Bank Śląski is ready to settle with franchise holders. Also in this case, these would be settlements based on a proposal presented by the chairman of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. Bank Pekao also announced that it plans to conclude settlements, but is still working on the details of the conversion mechanism.
BNP Paribas previously indicated that it would make a decision after the Supreme Court issued a resolution. MBank and Bank Millennium are also waiting for the Supreme Court. – We plan to make a decision after the Supreme Court hearing. (…) We are waiting for the court’s decision to include it in the information to the supervisory board – Joao Bras Jorge, CEO of Bank Millennium said on Monday. It is not known how Raiffeisen will behave in this case.
Supreme Court – foreign currency loans
At the end of January this year, the first president of the Supreme Court, Judge Małgorzata Manowska, asked the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court to resolve legal issues relating to the so-called foreign currency loans.
The Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court was to deal with these questions on May 11. The meeting started around 13.00. However, just before 7.00 p.m., the spokesman of the Supreme Court, Aleksander Stępkowski, announced that the court’s decision had been postponed. The Chamber asked various institutions for a position on this matter.
The next session of the civil chamber is to be held on September 2 this year.
PAP / Maciej Zieliński
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