Although the Greens’ proposal to offer those affected by variable-interest real estate loans a conversion to fixed-interest loans was rejected by their coalition partner ÖVP a few days ago, Social Affairs Minister Johannes Rauch followed up with criticism of the banks once more on Friday. In the Ö1-Mittagsjournal he accuses the institutes of providing poor advice to consumers and of not sufficiently pointing out the interest rate risk.
“If wrong advice has been given and people have allowed themselves to be misled into taking on these variable loans, there must be an offer to correct that,” said Rauch with regard to the Greens’ conversion proposal. The technical implementation must be discussed. Banks might also voluntarily offer their customers a switch from variable to fixed interest rates, “that is the more helpful and quicker option,” says Rauch.
Rauch also criticized the high proportion of variable loans in Austria. One in two people in this country have a loan with variable interest rates, while the average in other relevant EU countries is less than 25 percent. “Something went massively wrong,” said Rauch in the Ö1 lunchtime journal.
The ÖVP emphasized on Wednesday that the proposal was not an issue for them and would be legally difficult to implement. Franz Rudorfer, managing director of the WKÖ’s federal banking and insurance division, also warned this week once morest “constitutionally questionable quick fixes”.
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