The government provides "a great, second opportunity to the middle class to settle 'red' private debt," Deputy Premier Kostis Chatzidakis said on Wednesday, on the occasion of the National Economy & Finance Ministry's bill on private debt and referring to nonperforming loans (NPLs).

Chatzidakis, who as finance minister had presented the bill tabled by his successor Kyriakos Pierrakakis, said that the bill expanded the number of borrowers who qualified for the mandatory out-of-court settlement of NPLs. "In this way, 85% of borrowers, who have expressed such an interest so far, could practically be included in an automated settlement agreement! Without the state, banks and funds could turn it down," he said.

The initiative follows up on a regulation in December 2023 on out-of-court settlement that made this method obligatory for vulnerable citizens and provided an additional haircut of as much as 28% of their outstanding debts that could be settled. "Since 2023 and the first quarter of 2025, over 30,000 fellow-citizens had debts go through a haircut and reached agreements for debts totaling nearly 11 billion euros. At the same time, NPLs in banks and servicers dropped to 67 billion euros in the third quarter of 2024, from 92 billion euros in 2019," Chatzidakis said.

Chatzidakis said he would be interested in seeing the reaction of opposition parties to this new bill. "Because in December 2023, SYRIZA and PASOK voted [the then-bill] down. Will they now repeat the same mistake?," he asked.