Central bank figures show that banks had contacted 66,000 troubled mortgage holders by October last year and 22 percent failed to respond, the paper said.

Only 2,700 agreements were signed between the banks and borrowers in default by the end of October, but this number is expected to increase because the time between first contact and the signing of an agreement could be as long as six months, Világgazdaság said.

Either banks hand the cases of borrowers who refuse to sign a new agreement and pay accordingly over to a factoring company or debt collector, or they launch legal proceedings against them, the paper added.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.