The number of new credit mediation processes increased by 20% in 2021 compared to the previous year, with the opening of 646 new processes, according to the report released this Wednesday by the Bank of Portugal (BdP).
According to the 2021 activity report of the Credit Mediator, released by the banking supervisor, the number of open cases went from 540 in 2020 to 646 in 202120% growth in new processes.
Considering the activity since its inception, in 2009, the number of open cases totaled 5,927 cases at the end of last year.
As a general rule, procedures refer toto requests for mediation related to a certain product or credit situation (renegotiation or obtaining credit), or to requests for clarification or information on creditbeing, as such, later qualified as mediation processes or clarification processes”.
Of the 646 new cases opened last year, 29 were mediation cases, 407 clarification cases and 33 cases classified as “filed”that is, processes that did not progress to mediation or because the applicants did not provide the elements requested to proceed with the matter, or because they reached an agreement with the credit institution within the framework of the previous negotiation attempt.
The report indicates that among the open cases there were also 27 cases that were not the responsibility of a credit intermediary and 150 cases that, at the end of the year, were pending classification.
Taking into account both the cases opened in 2021 and the cases carried over from previous years, the number of cases that fall within the powers of the Credit Mediator registered an increase of 636 between the end of 2020 and the end of 2021, compared to 448 between end of 2019 and end of 2020″, it indicates.
According to the data, the requests submitted by the applicants directly to the Credit Mediator (405) continued to be predominant, representing 63% of the total, also standing out the requests received through the Bank of Portugal, which gave rise to 215 cases (33% of the total), which represents a growth of 34% compared to the processes of the same origin registered in 2020.
The report also indicates that 26 files were opened based on requests sent by the Secretary of State for Finance (4% of the total), compared to 25 files the previous year.
In 2021, the open processes continued to respect in their majority (96%) natural persons or sole proprietorships4% being the weight of the lawsuits filed by legal persons.
Regarding the issues, the most relevant continued to be the renegotiation of loans to individuals, which represented 52% of the total, also highlighting “the processes related to the mediation of “other matters”, requested by individuals, which had a weight of 41%, encompassing, mainly, requests sent to credit entities related to different credit claims”.
The report also notes that “for the period between 2009 and 2021, [foi verificada] an overall success rate of 65%, unchanged from that verified until the end of the previous year”.
As for the first data for this year, in the first quarter of 2022, 107 cases were opened as of March 26which compares with 156 cases in the same period of the previous year.
In monthly terms, 39 cases were opened in January, 35 cases in February and 33 cases in March 2022 (until the 26th), which compares with 45, 53 and 58 cases in the same periods of 2021, respectively”, he indicates.
Source: Observadora
