Due to the increases in the reference indexing factors for credit contracts, namely Euribor, in the current context of inflation, the Government approved last November a set of measures to support families, with a view to reducing the effects of the increase in interest rates on credit contracts for permanent home ownership, with up to with up to EUR 300,000.00 still outstanding.

The approved measures will be in force until 31 December 2023 and are aimed at mitigating repayment effort rate.

In concrete terms, banks will be obliged to monitor and check the evolution of their customers' effort rate, and may ask them for the information and documents appropriate for such verification, namely the income statement and the proof of income statements. On the basis of such information and documents, banks will assess the effort rate, i.e. the ratio between the total amount of the customer's monthly instalments and the customer's monthly income. Customers themselves, faced with a significant reduction in their financial capacity, may take the initiative to notify their bank of this circumstance, so that it can assess it.

Thus, if the bank detects signs of a significant worsening in the effort rate or of the verification of a significant effort rate, it must present the customer with one or more proposals that are appropriate to his or her financial situation and to mitigate the worsening of his or her effort rate.