PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias will personally take over discussions with banks to solve the problem of divorced women being hounded for their husband’s loans, he told members of their association yesterday.

“We’re trying to get them to change the law on who the banks chase first,” said Loulla Savvidou, president of the Divorced Women’s Association. “We want it changed so that the person who takes out the loan is first pursued for the whole amount before banks go after guarantors”.

Yesterday Savvidou and the seven members who participated in a hunger strike with her a month ago met Christofias, the general attorney Petros Clerides and law commissioner Leda Koursoumba at the Presidential Palace.

The week long hunger strike outside parliament protested that they had all signed as guarantors on their husbands’ loans, but the banks were going after them first instead of their husbands. The association has been staging protests over the last six months in a concerted effort to get the government to listen to them.

According to Savvidou, Clerides said he will try and implement the law that applies in other EU countries whereby the banks chase the person that takes out the loan first and then turns to the guarantor.

She also said that the President will be personally undertaking the freezing of their debts as in this way they will be able to discuss their issues with the banks more easily since they will not be under pressure.

Savvidou stressed that the law should be changed for everyone and not just for women who may have been pressurised into signing as a guarantor on their husband’s loan. She also said that the majority of cases involve women but there are cases that involve men too.

“If the law changes though it won’t change for us but at least we won’t lose any more money,” said Savvidou. “We’ll have to see what can be done for our problems which won’t be taken into account with the new law,” added Savvidou.

Source: Cyprus Mail