The Franak Association Begins the Fight for Euro Borrowers

“Franak” calls on all interested euro borrowers who took out a loan with a variable interest rate between September 13, 2003, and December 31, 2008, to join the association in order to pursue the possibility of filing a private class action lawsuit against banks

The Franak Association is initiating a private class action lawsuit against banks for the illegal increase of interest rates on euro loans with variable interest rates, representatives of the association reported at a press conference on Tuesday.

“Franak” calls on all interested euro borrowers who took out a loan with a variable interest rate between September 13, 2003, and December 31, 2008, to join the association in order to pursue the possibility of filing a private class action lawsuit against banks, said Goran Aleksić, the main coordinator of the Franak Association .

– All euro borrowers have the right to a refund of overpaid interest, but unfortunately, they can only achieve this through legal means, he says, adding that there are tens of thousands of borrowers who took out loans during the mentioned period when banks arbitrarily raised interest rates, estimating around 50,000.

All euro borrowers who took out loans with a variable interest rate before 2010, and whose rates were unilaterally changed by banks, are equally harmed as borrowers in Swiss francs, Aleksić assesses. He emphasizes that the first ten members of the Franak Association who contact the association’s “legal email” will have the opportunity to file a class action lawsuit against the bank, demanding the return of overpaid interest amounts along with the payment of statutory default interest. The class action lawsuit, he said, is raised for a maximum claim amount of 250,000 kuna, which limits the number of competitors participating in the lawsuit.

The Franak Association, says Aleksić, who is confident in a legal victory, guarantees these borrowers that they will incur no costs in the court dispute, regardless of the outcome of the process.

– The lawsuit will succeed one hundred percent, but there is always a certain risk, Aleksić noted, calling on all euro borrowers to join the Franak Association, pay the membership fee, and submit complete loan documentation so that experts can verify whether there are grounds for a lawsuit.

Advisory assistance will be organized for members of the Franak Association with euro loans, but without complete organization of the court process. For the first hundred members of the Franak Association, euro borrowers, who contact the association’s legal email, calculations of overpaid interest amounts will be organized.

Aleksić announces that “Franak” will soon submit proposals for two laws to the parliamentary procedure. One would establish the methodology for determining fixed interest margins in loans where the margins were illegally set, and the other would allow borrowers to receive overpaid interest extrajudicially based on a final court ruling in a collective court process.