HUB says, in a press release issued on Monday, that over the past five years as long as the crisis has been continuing, banks have introduced a series of measures to assist citizens who are not able to keep up with loan repayments but that the banks alone cannot impact economic growth until responsible stakeholders start to implement reforms.

In response to requests to comment on recent recommendations by President Ivo Josipovic that could relieve the situation facing citizens, HUB, which includes 19 commercial banks, added that bank support would be stronger if those responsible were to implement reforms and stimulate business activity which banks along with citizens have been expecting and awaiting for years.

But until that happens, banks will continue to preserve financial stability and ensure undisturbed functioning of payments and above all guarantee the security of accounts and savings by Croatian citizens.

As for the president's recommendations regarding models for defining and supervising interest rates, the association says that interest rates are regulated by law which "wrongly introduced the minimum lending rate as a parameter for the upper limits of legal and default rates".

HUB has for years been proposing that this topic be regulated by the market and transparent guidelines, following the best practice of European countries and in cooperation with all stakeholders, primarily the Finance Ministry and the Croatian National Bank.

As far as the introduction of personal bankruptcy is concerned, HUB considers that this idea should be expanded to regulate over-indebtedness through an institutional and formal procedure.

HUB advised that foreclosures on real estate were always the last move that banks reached for mostly due to the cost and duration of court proceedings in these cases.

HUB recommended that citizens who are faced with problems, should approach their bank as soon as the problems arise in an effort to find an acceptable solution.