CYPRUS: Finance Minister aims for March deal on foreclosures

Finance Minister Haris Georgiades said on Friday that he hopes the controversial bills on foreclosures and insolvencies will be concluded “within March”, despite parliament delaying their implementation by a further two weeks on Thursday night.

The outstanding fifth piece of legislation for a comprehensive framework that will give banks a tool to recover unpaid loans, while securing primary homes from repossession, is also holding up the next tranche of bailout money from the Troika of international lenders and the sixth review of the economic adjustment programme.
In a majority vote, the House of Representatives voted on Thursday to delay until March 19 the approval of the law on foreclosures of mortgaged immovable properties to allow sufficient time for consideration and voting of the relevant insolvency framework bill.
The Troika (EC, ECB, IMF) mission visited the island in late January for an informal review of the programme implementation but reached no conclusions.
“Given the further suspension of the effective application of the foreclosure framework, reaching staff-level agreement on the review was not possible during this visit,” the lenders said in a statement.
The first suspension of the law on foreclosures by parliament expires on Monday, March 2.