rec_56

(56) In respect of consumers, Directives 2008/48/EC and 2014/17/EU should be amended by this Directive to establish that Member States should require creditors to have adequate policies and procedures so that they make efforts to exercise, where appropriate, reasonable forbearance before foreclosure proceedings are initiated. Account should be taken of the EBA Guidelines on arrears and foreclosure of 19 August 2015, of the EBA Guidelines on management of non-performing and forborne exposures of 31 October 2018 and of the ECB Guidance to banks on non-performing loans of March 2017. When deciding which forbearance measures to take, creditors should take into account the individual circumstances of the consumer, the consumer’s interests and rights and the consumer’s ability to repay the credit, including in particular if the credit agreement is secured by residential immovable property that is the consumer’s primary residence. Forbearance measures should be able to consist of certain concessions to the consumer, such as a total or partial refinancing of a credit agreement, or a modification of its existing terms and conditions including, among others, an extension of its term, a change of the type of credit agreement, a deferral of payment of all or part of the instalment repayment for a period, a change of interest rate, an offer of a payment holiday, partial repayments, currency conversions, partial forgiveness and debt consolidation. Member States should have appropriate forbearance measures in place at national level. The list of forbearance measures provided in this Directive, as amendments to Directives 2008/48/EC and 2014/17/EU, is not exhaustive, and therefore Member States remain free to provide for additional measures. Likewise, it is open to Member States not to provide for a specific measure if so foreseen at national level, as long as a reasonable number of measures remains available. Where after foreclosure proceedings outstanding debt remains, Member States should ensure the protection of minimum living conditions and put in place measures to facilitate debt repayment while avoiding long-term over-indebtedness. At least where the price obtained for the residential immovable property affects the amount owed by the consumer, Member States should encourage creditors to take reasonable steps to obtain the best efforts price for the foreclosed residential immovable property in the context of market conditions. Member States should not prevent the parties to a credit agreement from expressly agreeing that the transfer of the security to the creditor is sufficient in order to repay the credit, in particular when the credit is secured by the consumer’s primary residence.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-10-12 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.