BRATISLAVA, December 29, (WEBNOVINY) — Original terms that applied for the home saving system so far remain in effect in the upcoming year as well. A home saver will have to deposit nearly EUR 664 to his/her home saving account if s/he wants to be eligible to the law-set maximum state annual bonus of EUR 66.39. The bonus thus represents ten percent of the annual deposit. Moreover, annual interest rate on home saving deposits amounts to 2 percent, specified director general of CSOB Stavebna Sporitelna Lubomir Kovacik.
The Finance Ministry had planned to push through changes to the home saving system affecting the sum of the state bonus. The state bonus on home saving contracts for 2012 should have represented ten percent of the annual deposit, but not more than EUR 15, according to the draft amendment on the home saving law, proposed by the ministry. It was to scrap the formula for calculating the bonus based particularly on interest rates on government bonds. Later, the bonus was to be set in the law on state budget. The Finance Ministry also criticized the clause according to which also a client who concludes a contract with a home saving bank for example on the last day of the respective year can is entitled to the full sum of the bonus. The ministry wanted to change this as well in its amendment. The revision also adjusted fees and canceled the state bonus for the period when a client is drawing an interim loan.
The Slovak Parliament eventually decided in late November not to debate the proposal significantly reducing the home saving bonus provided by the state. Submission of the draft to parliament was in contradiction with the parliamentary standing order, as the required six-month period from the last vote on this change has not yet passed. The parliament failed to override the president’s veto of the draft on October 19, because some deputies for the SaS party did not vote with the rest of the coalition partners, as they said, unintentionally. Home savings banks said they would consider taking legal action had the bill been passed.
Financial intermediator Finanzpartner does not expect any considerable increase in the number of new deals next year as instability of political decisions about the home saving system itself has negatively influenced attractiveness of the product, mainly in the saving phase said Finanzpartner’s board member Igor Cecko. However given that the amendment was not approved and also the prepared novelties in the new year, Wustenrot Stavebna Sporitelna believes that these factors will positively influence their business results as long as political complications do not arrive that would result in reduced support to the current system of home construction financing in Slovakia.
SITA
