THE SLOVAK GOVERNMENT ACCEPTED THE MEASURES RELATED TO DEFERRAL OF LOAN REPAYMENTS GRANTED TO SMALL EMPLOYERS (SMEs) AND SELF-EMPLOYEDOn March 6, 2020 the Slovak Government accepted the draft amendment to the Act no. 67/2020 Coll. on certain emergency financial measures in relation to the spread of dangerous contagious human disease COVID-19, which will allow small employers (SMEs as defined in Annex I of the Commission Regulation No. 651/2014) and self-employed persons, to postpone loan repayments. If the creditor is a bank or a branch of a foreign bank, SMEs and self-employed persons will be able to request a deferral of loan repayment (hereinafter referred to as 'deferral') for a maximum period of 9 months from the due date of the next unpaid loan repayment. If the creditor is a person other than a bank or a branch of a foreign bank, the deferral of loan repayment is possible for a maximum period of 3 months from the due date of the next unpaid loan repayment.In both cases, the debtor may request a deferred repayment of the same loan during the pandemic period only once, and the postponement of the loan repayment will not be considered as a delay and will not impair the creditworthiness of the debtor. The loan repayment may not be deferred by the creditor if one of the following situation occurs, and the reason must be stated in the negative statement of the creditor:if the debtor is in default of repayment of the loan in question more than 30 calendar days prior to the submission of the application for deferral of loan repayments (hereinafter referred to as „application“)if the debtor is in default of a minimum 100 EUR of another loan by 29 February 2020if the debtor was considered to have failed under EU Regulation No. 575/2013 as of 29 February 2020if the application has not been fully completed or has not contain the requisites according to the template of the application (Annex no. 3 of the draft amendment to the Act) The application must be submitted in a written way, e.g. electronic form with guaranteed electronic signature or guaranteed electronic seal, scan and subsequent verification by telephone, etc. The creditor is obliged to inform the debtor about the authorization or rejection of the application within 30 calendar days after the complete application has been received, otherwise the application is automatically considered to be accepted. Unpaid interest related to the deferral period will be allocated to the remaining loan repayments due after the deferral period has expired, unless the creditor agrees with the debtor on a different repayment. Upon a special request from the debtor, the deferral of loan may be terminated in case the debtor wishes to start repaying or repay the loan during the deferral period. Nevertheless, without the debtor's special request, the creditor may not request repayment of the entire loan during the deferral period.
