At the end of May nearly 300 thousand citizens had frozen accounts with over 5.2 billion Euro of debt, mostly to banks, and although legally possible, the procedure for personal bankruptcy due to inability to pay off debts was started by only 536 citizens, Financial Agency data shows
According to Financial Agency (FINA) data, the total debt at the end of May amounted to 5.2 billion Euro, of which more than a half, 53% or 2.76 billion Euro, is owed by citizens to banks, credit unions or savings banks. If we add to this leasing and factoring societies, insurance and credit card companies, the debt of residents to all financial institutions was at the end of May 3.17 billion Euro or 60.7% of the total amount, Tportal.hr reported on July 11, 2016.
The second creditor by amount of debt owed by citizens is the state and local administration units, to whom they owed 573 million Euro, 11.05% of the total debt of citizens.
Viewed by the period of debt, most of citizens are in debt over a year. At the end of May there were 251,887 such debtors or 78% of the total, owing 4.17% billion Euro, 94% of the total debt.
The analysis of data on frozen accounts by the amount of individual debt shows 45% owe more than 1.3 and less than 13.3 thousand Euro, while their total commitments amount to 733 million Euro.
Over 4.4 billion Euro refers to 53,200 citizens whose individual debt exceed 133 thousand Euro. The majority of the amount, 2.76 billion Euro, is owed by 4,318 citizens with individual debt over 133 thousand Euro.
With the beginning of this year the law enabling personal bankruptcy came into effect, regulating that a citizen or consumer is incapable of paying off debt is they cannot fulfil one or more commitments for 90 days straight totalling over 1.777 Euro.
The procedure is voluntary, on consumer demand, but FINA data showed that out of 330 thousand citizens in debt, by the beginning of July on 500 of them decided on the procedure.
FINA has published a review of grouped data from the consumer bankruptcy system, showing the request for the procedure was submitted by July 4 by 536 citizens and one craftsman, with debt over 27.8 million Euro.
FINA data also show that in 144 such cases weren’t resolved in the mandated 30 days, after which the case goes to court.