Few borrowers opt to repay forex mortgages at fixed rate - paper

Initiatives

Few Hungarians have opted to repay their foreign currency-denominated mortgages at a fixed rate under a government assistance program launched a month ago, business daily Világgazdaság said on Monday.

Világgazdaság asked eight big banks how many borrowers had joined the program and the number added up to less than 2,300.

The assistance program, launched on August 19, fixes the exchange rate for repayments on the loans and puts the difference between the fixed rate and the market rate on a separate forint account to be repaid later. The program's rate for Swiss franc-based loans -- once the most popular lending product in Hungary -- is 180 forints to the franc, well under the market rate of around 239 early Monday.

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