More than 400 Austrian banks have applied to the Constitutional Court (VfGH) due to legally suspended loans during the Corona period, for which banks cannot charge interest. The money houses received the decision today: according to the Constitutional Court, the moratorium on interest-free credit in 2020 was constitutional and the submitted application was therefore rejected. This is what emerges from a statement from the Constitutional Court.
The trigger was the ruling against BAWAG
The trigger for the demand from the banks, to which 403 institutions have joined, was a ruling by the Supreme Court (OGH) against BAWAG at the end of 2021, which showed that for the period of the statutory credit moratoriums – from 1 April 2020 to January 31 2021 – not only default interest cannot be charged, but also interest expense, i.e. normal contractual interest. This was clearly not regulated in the 2nd accompanying Covid-19 judicial act, in which special regulations were created to relieve consumers affected by the pandemic.
The banks had argued that this was an invasion of their property and a violation of the principle of equality. Because compared to landlords, who could recover their rents including interest after a deferral period of three months, the banks lost their loan income, i.e. interest, for ten months.
