How can credit bureaus in the EBRD region be improved?

An examination of the results of an in-house survey of credit information reporting systems (so-called credit registers or credit bureaus), their regulators, supervisors and customers (financial institutions using credit information reporting).

The survey was conducted in late 2010 in 15 EBRD countries of operations: Hungary, Poland, Slovak Rep., Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Serbia, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Rep. and Mongolia.

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Post-Crisis Treatment of Retail NPLs: The Case of the Hungarian Mortgage Debt Relief Programme

Several countries in the EBRD region have introduced measures to deal with rising non-performance loans, known as NPLs.

Most recently the Hungarian government announced a complex mortgage debt relief programme that seeks to address the problem of high stock of FX mortgage loans (73% of total mortgage loans) and their high default rate, related particularly to loans denominated in Swiss Franc (90% of total FX loans). It provides for a significant temporary relief to borrowers at the expense of banks, but likely delays the day of ‘reckoning’ for final burden sharing between the government and the banks in 2015.

While the programme’s short term direct fiscal costs are likely to be small, there are also indirect costs, including an open-ended interest rate subsidy offer and quasi-fiscal costs to be borne by the new asset management company. The longer term costs, including the costs of a potential bail-out if the forint exchange rate remains close to present levels or even depreciates will have to be re-assessed closer to 2015. Moral hazard risks for households are significant; those for banks will depend on the final burden-sharing arrangement in 2015.

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Guest post: How Bosnia’s war widows are learning to become tomorrow’s entrepreneurs

On the day of the EBRD and Women for Women ‘s one day conference on the practical implications of recent experimental research on women and economic development, Women for Women have interviewed Seida Saric, Country Director for Bosnia and Herzegovina, for the EBRD’s blog.

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