The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE government’s proposed Borrowers’ Protection Bill is intended to protect borrowers from issues like arbitrary fee increases and ensure a code of conduct for lenders according to State Minister for Finance Michael Halkitis.

Mr Halkitis said: “The main objective is to protect the borrowers from things like arbitrary increases in fees and to make sure we have a code of conduct for lenders in terms of information that they have to disclose as well things that the borrowers have to do in terms of being upfront when it comes to disclosure. That is in the process of being circulated among the banks so that they can give us their feedback. We have gotten some feedback already and with the intent of incorporating where we can the suggestions,” said Mr Halkitis.

He added: “We are not interested in ambushing anybody or springing anything on them, what we aim to do is sit with people and exchange ideas, discuss back and forth and then come back with something everybody can live with.”

Mr Halkitis said that the government intends to ‘move ahead’ with the introduction of a Pension Fund Protection Act when the House of Assembly resumes in the fall.

“We already put on the table a draft pension bill which when passed will allow people to access savings in their pension funds to help save their homes if that’s required. We expect to take it up when we come back in October after the break. We allowed it to stay there so we could get some final consultation from people in the industry. We anticipate that when we come back in the fall we will be able to move ahead with that,” said Mr Halkitis.

He added: “This is very significant in that it allows for the protection of pension assets by requiring that all private pension funds have an administrator in place. It also sets out the qualifications for administrators and it addresses what sort of investments pension plans might undertake.”