Poland working on simplifying Swiss franc FX loan settlements and court cases

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's justice ministry is working on streamlining procedures to unblock courts handling tens of thousands of Swiss franc mortgage loan cases and is trying to work out a standardised out-of-court settlement format, it said on Tuesday.

Hundreds of thousands of Poles took out mortgages in foreign currencies, mainly in Swiss francs, in the early to mid 2000s attracted by lower interest rates.

They are now repaying them in far bigger instalments than expected after the Swiss franc soared against the zloty and following interest rate hikes in Switzerland.

Many mortgage holders took banks to court, while banks started offering settlements to find an out-of-court solution.

There are currently nearly 190,000 such cases in courts, while 94,000 out-of-court settlements have already been concluded, a representative of the ministry said.

The ministry said it has started work in cooperation with the financial regulator, consumer protection office, ministry of finance, banks and consumer organisation on a standardised settlement agreement.

"The project also includes a special path for the approval of Swiss franc settlements by courts," said Aneta Wiewiorowska-Domagalska, the minister's plenipotentiary for FX loans.

The Polish Banking Association welcomed this initiative.

"I don't know the details yet, works are only just starting, so we will be working on this material regarding a template for settlements of CHF loans," the head of the association Tadeusz Bialek told reporters.

"As the banking sector, we will certainly support such a solution because it will provide greater legal certainty."

Apart from streamlining settlements, the ministry is also working with judges on simplifying and digitalising Swiss franc loan court cases. It also plans to train judges in applying EU top court guidance in such cases.

Polish politicians have repeatedly tried to regulate Swiss franc loan settlements in recent years, but none of the proposed solutions have solved the problem.

(Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; Editing by Kim Coghill)