The Voice movement demands to write off loans from pensioners. The action at Liberty Bank ended in a skirmish
The civil movement "Khma" (Voice) held a protest action at the head office of Liberty Bank, which owns the right to issue pensions, social benefits and loans under pension guarantees.
The main requirement of the campaign is the write—off of pension loans, starting in 2019, and the so-called "pension overdrafts" issued to elderly people at high interest rates.
"Hundreds of thousands of pensioners took loans against their meager pensions and found themselves in a financial trap. This is due to unreliable information or insufficient information of elderly people, they are forced to take out loans at high interest rates in a semi-fraudulent way," said one of the participants of the action, Giorgi Kartvelishvili.
In May 2022, Liberty Bank once again won the tender announced by the state and received the right to issue pensions for the next seven years. For this service, the bank receives GEL 15 million per year from the state.
At the end of last year, the bank reported that 360 thousand pensioners in Georgia out of about 800 thousand have pension loans.
Pensioners can take a pension for several months in advance, and the amount is issued as a loan. Thus, in November 2022, the total amount of "pension loans" was 334 million GEL.
The average size of the pension loan is GEL 924, which is a pension for 3-3.5 months.
The Georgian government announced last year that it sets the maximum loan rate for pensioners at 26%, reducing it from 30.69%.
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The Voice movement demands to write off loans from pensioners. The action at Liberty Bank ended in a skirmish
The civil movement "Khma" (Voice) held a protest action at the head office of Liberty Bank, which owns the right to issue pensions, social benefits and loans under pension guarantees.
The main requirement of the campaign is the write—off of pension loans, starting in 2019, and the so-called "pension overdrafts" issued to elderly people at high interest rates.
"Hundreds of thousands of pensioners took loans against their meager pensions and found themselves in a financial trap. This is due to unreliable information or insufficient information of elderly people, they are forced to take out loans at high interest rates in a semi-fraudulent way," said one of the participants of the action, Giorgi Kartvelishvili.
In May 2022, Liberty Bank once again won the tender announced by the state and received the right to issue pensions for the next seven years. For this service, the bank receives GEL 15 million per year from the state.
At the end of last year, the bank reported that 360 thousand pensioners in Georgia out of about 800 thousand have pension loans.
Pensioners can take a pension for several months in advance, and the amount is issued as a loan. Thus, in November 2022, the total amount of "pension loans" was 334 million GEL.
The average size of the pension loan is GEL 924, which is a pension for 3-3.5 months.
The Georgian government announced last year that it sets the maximum loan rate for pensioners at 26%, reducing it from 30.69%.
newsgeorgia.ge
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