More than 22,000 people applied to the voluntary debt restructuring program launched by a large number of banks, credit administrators and collection agencies to address the problem of the huge number of Uruguayans in debt.
During the first hours of application of this innovative solution implemented by a significant number of financial institutions, more than 22,000 people of the more than 780,000 that make up the target audience of the program —debtors classified as category 5 or with unrecoverable debts institutions—had already restructured their unpaid commitments. And more than 170,000 had made inquiries in this regard.
The debt restructuring program for consumer credits It began at eight o’clock on Thursday morning, for now exclusively through the website soluciondeuda.com.uy; where information is also provided on the refinancing conditions and which institutions are participating in the initiative.
“This shows people’s willingness and desire to pay, but it also shows that this is an exceptional opportunity and that they have to take advantage of it. This opportunity will not be repeated, it is only once. This goes until November 15, if we were doing this all the time the incentive would be not to pay and that can never be the case,” he said. Barbara Mainzer, director of the Association of Private Banks of Uruguay (ABPU)to Telemundo.
Through the program, those who meet the conditions for restructuring will be able to cancel their debts in installments and without counting the fines or surcharges that have been applied due to non-payment. Likewise, amounts less than 5,000 pesos could be completely condemned.
An opportunity to regain credit
“We are looking for a solution that addresses the most vulnerable populationwhich does not compromise the legal order and respects the balance sheets of financial institutions. Because the president of the Central Bank (BCU) “I said: solving a problem now to complicate credit tomorrow is not a good solution,” Mainzer explained to Radio Carve.
For the APBU director, Uruguayans have the opportunity to recover credit, which is not a minor issue, so she urged to take advantage of the opportunity to “pay in exceptional conditions” which will only be available for four months – until November 15 – and which, during July, will only be accessible through the website.
According to him, the voluntary refinancing program also means that people who begin to pay their debts can improve, in parallel, their credit rating, thus opening up the possibility of taking out credit again in the future. Thus, starting with the 15% payment of the refinanced debt—in installments and without surcharges—the history begins to be cleared, and “if the debt is extinguished, that mark is no longer there,” he said.
However, since the Association of Bank Employees of Uruguay (AEBU)insisted that the payment of debts will not change the situation of the people who are in the Report Clearing. “This is a Central Bank registry that basically applies to the financial system. It does not imply that people are changed to a different category in the Clearing of Reports, in fact, this is a private company that provides services to clients, and that rates Uruguayans based on their ability to pay. These measures may change the category a little, but they will not remove it, because it is a record of how the citizen behaves in terms of their debts,” he said. Pablo Andrade, union counselor, told Radio Carve.
Source: Ambito
