22.03.2022
The request for the transformation of the Cyprus Asset Management Company (KEDIPES) into an asset management body and the implementation of the mortgage-to-lease plan is expected to be formally submitted to the Competition Authority in July next year, a Ministry of Finance spokesman said, stressing that the government is eligibility issues so that the new First Residence and Professional Housing Protection Plan does not have the same results as the ESTIA plan.
Speaking before the parliamentary finance committee, Anti Chrysostomou Lapatioti, director of the Finance Ministry’s Financial Stability Department, did not provide specific information as the matter is being handled by an external consultant to finalize the plan at the Directorate General.
At today’s meeting of the Committee, the issue of transforming KEDIPES into a national asset management body, as well as the procedures that it follows in terms of providing restructuring solutions to borrowers, was considered.
The work of KEDIPES in 2018 was approved by DG Competition on the basis of specific commitments, as it concerned the provision of government guarantees in the process of transferring the serviced portfolio of the former Co-operative Bank of Cyprus to Hellenic Bank.Speaking at the meeting, KEDIPES President Lambros Papadopoulos said that KEDIPES had reached €2.8bn in total solutions since its inception in September 2018, of which €1.1bn in restructuring came from cash inflows of 1.2 billion euros, while state aid redeemed in cash is 570 million euros, 140 million euros in real estate, and 250 million euros was paid in the form of obligations of the former SKT, i.e. the asset protection plan provided by Elliniki for voluntary pension plan, and 70 million euros were paid as tax. Moreover, according to the information provided by KEDIPES, the write-off of loans since the start of KEDIPES operation amounted to €1.1 billion.
“If you add them all together, we gave the state more than €1 billion,” he said, adding that in the first six months, KEDIPES did not have a license for a credit management company, and there was also a coronavirus pandemic.
In addition, KEDIPES CEO Marios Papadopoulos told the committee that KEDIPES is not proceeding with the sale of the main house for less than 350,000 euros.
