State-owned asset management company Kedipes on Thursday announced that in the coming days, it will be returning interest payments totalling €4.6 million to borrowers with restructured credit facilities for the first half of 2023.

This action is part of the Interest Subsidy Scheme, as a reward for their adherence to the repayment programme for their credit facilities in 2023.

A total of 69 per cent of potentially eligible loans, bearing the ECB’s basic interest rate, benefited from the interest subsidy, while loan repayments amounted to €16.2 million in the first half, of which €3.7 million were related to loans totalling €79 million that were updated to participate in the scheme.

In a statement, Kedipes expressed satisfaction with the initial results of the Interest Subsidy Scheme, which was announced last March, following successive interest rate increases by the European Central Bank (ECB).

The total number of eligible loans amounted to 3,338 loans, with the remaining subsidised loans reaching €390 million as of June 30, 2023.

During the scheme, according to Kedipes, loans amounting to €79 million that had delays by December 31, 2022, covered their arrears and were subsequently added to the scope of interest returns by June 30, 2023.

This resulted in 69 per cent of potentially eligible loans benefitting from the interest subsidy, compared to 52 per cent by December 31, 2022.

“The interest return amount is calculated at €4.6 million for the first half of 2023 or 41 per cent of the interest that would have been charged before the return,” the statement noted.

According to Kedipes, out of the total eligible loans, the amount received from repayments during the period from December 31, 2022, to June 30, 2023, amounted to €16.2 million, of which €3.7 million were related to loans totalling €79 million that were updated.

“The affected accounts will be credited in the coming days,” Kedipes concluded in its statement.