The deadline for companies and individuals to adhere to public credit moratoria ends today, and those who do so now can, at most, postpone the payment of credits until the end of this year.
In March 2020, the Government announced the availability of credit moratoria (known as public moratoria), which allowed thousands of families and companies affected by the pandemic to suspend payment of credits (interest and/or capital), extending the term of the loan.
Since then, the measure has been subject to several extensions. Thus, and although initially designed to run until September 2020, the public moratorium will remain in effect until September 30, 2021, but there will be some differences and exceptions.
Because, as membership can be made until today and you can benefit from the measure for a maximum of nine months, companies or individuals who do so at this time will be 'protected' by the moratorium until the end of this year.
The rules determine that only credits that were formalized up to March 26, 2020 can still adhere to public moratoriums and when customers are concerned who have either never adhered to this measure before or who have benefited from it for a period of less than nine months.
In the case of individuals, the moratorium covers mortgage credit, mortgage credit and financial leasing of residential properties, as well as consumer credit for education purposes.
For companies, the public moratorium will, on the other hand, bring some differences from April onwards: while companies in sectors particularly affected by the pandemic will continue to benefit from the suspension of payment of outstanding capital and interest until September, the rest may maintain the suspension of the payment of capital, but in April they begin to pay the part relating to interest.
In addition, companies in tourism, culture and other sectors most affected by the pandemic will also have an additional period of 12 months to repay the outstanding capital.
Recently, the Minister of State and Economy, Pedro Siza Vieira, stated that the Government is “working hard” to extend the maturity of the bank moratoriums in sectors and companies whose recovery of activity will be slower.
"With regard to the bank moratoriums that end, as a whole, at the end of September, we are working hard to be able to extend the maturity of those sectors and companies that, depending on the characteristics of their activity, will take longer to recover", he said the minister at a press conference on 12 March.
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