The Franak civil society organisation on Monday rejected claims that a recent ruling against eight Croatian banks had led to the abolishment of the foreign currency clause and that this could lead to destabilising the banking system, adding that claims of this nature were being released only to intimidate the public with possible consequences and to exert pressure on the appeal's chamber.
After the ruling in the collective suit in which banks lost the case against the Potrosac NGO, a great deal of dust has been raised, the Franak NGO said, and we've even heard some people negate the verdict from various aspects with constant warnings by so-called independent analysts who claim that this will be bad for banks and that they will suddenly incur huge losses which will then have negative consequences on the economy.
The Franak NGO concludes that the essence of the verdict was argumented, clear and simple and that it referred to money that was illegally taken from Croatian citizens.
"To those who are intimidating the public with possible consequences of the court's ruling, we recall that the described confiscation of money from citizens has for some time now had an impact on the economy, primarily due to reduced purchasing power which has now evidently impacted the state budget and unemployment rate", the NGO's representatives said, adding that these people are completely neglecting the legal explanation of the court's ruling.
The NGO has pointed out that the ruling has not abolished the foreign currency clause concerning the Swiss franc but has proclaimed it void in existing loans contracts where clients were not warned of the possible risks.
The reason it was declared void was that consumers were not cautioned that the Croatian National Bank only defended the national kuna currency against the Euro and that banks knew that the value of the Swiss franc was bound to grow and in keeping with good business practise they should not have offered it as an alternative on loans of 20 to 30 years.
