Greece's ELAS Criticizes New Extrajudicial Debt Settlement Mechanism

The Greek Association of Private Creditors (ELAS) has condemned the government’s new extrajudicial debt‑settlement scheme, saying it leaves citizens and small businesses exposed after seven years of policies that favored funds, servicers and foreclosures. ELAS points to the abolition of first‑home protection, a record 67,309 property foreclosures in 2025 (up 131% from 2019), and a rise in total private debt from €367 billion to €410 billion. Under the new rules the minimum debt threshold is cut from €10,000 to €5,000 and stricter limits are placed on debtor rights, while only €5 billion of €42 billion of loan‑restructuring requests have been approved and just 584 of 141,110 foreclosure‑suspension applications were accepted.

A related report on the 72‑installment repayment option shows modest uptake: after nearly a month, only about 3,000 approvals were granted out of roughly 5,500 applications. Around 250,000 debtors were excluded by a cut‑off rule, and the total debtor registry exceeds 2.04 million. Although the new scheme offers a lower interest rate of 5.5%, the overall burden remains comparable to the older 24‑installment plan, offering limited relief to most borrowers.