Možemo platform and SDP ask for moratorium on sale of debts to debt collection agencies

Parliamentarians Sandra Benčić (Možemo Platform) and Peđa Grbin (Social Democratic Party) sent a letter to the governor of the Croatian National Bank (CNB), Boris Vujčić, asking him to temporarily suspend the sale of debts to debt collection agencies.

After two recent cases of data leakage, or violation of the right to privacy of citizens whose debts were purchased by debt collection agencies (EOS Matrix and B2 Kapital), MPs from the Možemo Platform and the Social Democratic Party demand that the CNB governor amend the decision on the purchase and sale of credit institution positions.

“Please put a moratorium on the sale of positions arising from consumer contracts, including housing consumer credit contracts, until the law regulating agencies and their actions is passed,” they stated in their letter.

Where are the debtor protection mechanisms?

Sandra Benčić and Peđa Grbin note that the CNB does not have any mechanisms to protect debtors after their debts are transferred from banks to debt collection agencies. Despite this, the CNB approves the sale of debts above a certain value prescribed by the decision, but then the protection of debtors must be ensured in accordance with the Law on Credit Institutions, they add.

According to the Law, a credit institution is solely liable if a debtor ends up in a legally or factually worse position with the acquirer. The Croatian Association of Banks has publicly dissociated itself from such responsibility in cases of personal data protection violations, considering that all responsibility, at the moment of the sale has passed to the acquirer, states the letter.

Opposition representatives warn of the complete lack of regulation of the work of debt collection agencies, which have been suspected of exchanging personal data of debtors, as well as data about their children, that is, minors.

Source: HRT