The association Franak, established by Croatians who took loans pegged to the Swiss franc in light of a steady appreciation of the Swiss currency, on 30 September filed a lawsuit with the Commercial Court in Zagreb against seven commercial banks in Croatia in order to protect the rights of 125,000 debtors with loans indexed to the Swiss currency, the association told a news conference earlier this week.
In the suit, the association asked for a limited application of the foreign currency clause, namely that it be applied only if the exchange rate of the Swiss frank is increasing up to two percent a year, and more than that only if the official inflation rate is higher than two percent. The associations also asked that a reference value for the change of the interest be defined.
The association files the lawsuit against the banks which issued loans pegged to the frank - Erste & Steiermaerkische Bank, Hypo-Alpe-Adria-Bank, OTP Bank, Privredna Banka Zagreb, Societe Generale - Splitska Banka, Zagrebacka Banka and Volksbank.
The association informed the banks about the suit. No bank has commented on the lawsuit.
