Two members of the Stop Layoffs platform, together with two people affected by the sale of mortgage debts by Kutxabank, addressed the Basque Government’s Department of Territorial Planning, Housing and Transport on Tuesday. Objective: Denounce the sale made by Kutxabank and its impact, and transfer the demands to the Basque Government.

In July Kutxabank sold 2,500 mortgage loans to Zima Finances investment fund for EUR 250 million. These debts were classified by the bank as "toxic", as this is how the bank's eyes are called debts with little probability of being fully recovered. In this way, Kutxabank has debanded loans from several families that could not cope with the debt, selling them to the fund at a price lower than the debt of their clients. This was explained by the Stop Layoffs platform in October, shortly after knowing the sale: "All banks are selling dormant debts to putre funds at a much lower price than their customers' debt. But Supreme Court judgment 728/2020 prevents debtors from buying their debt at an irreversible price sold to the fund. So banks and vulture funds win, and people who are mortgaged lose." In fact, once loans are handed over to puthree funds, they increase the chances of filing eviction claims and leaving vulnerable families on the streets, unlike banks, because the Code of Good Banking Practices does not apply to funds.

The sale of Kutxabank has affected 2,500 debtors, including some Basque families. For this reason, the platform has called on the Government to warn of their responsibility for the vulnerability of these families to Anton Arriola Boneta, director of Kutxabank from November onwards, and that, in compliance with the Housing Act 2015, offer alternatives to families that will be at risk of being evicted through the public housing park.

They also warned that Kutxabank and other banks intend to sell another package of mortgage loans through the so-called Lezama Project, which would lead so many other families to a vulnerable situation.

The Lezama Project, like the sales made by Kutxabank in October, would sell several mortgage loans in the same lot. The sale by lot of mortgage loans denies tenants the right to default and retract on the basis of a judgment of the Supreme Court. Rosa García, from the platform No Layoffs, clearly explains the manoeuvre in this video that gathers part of the concertation in the Government:

Gaur eguerdi, Rosa eta Salva, bi artean, Eusko Sozialistak-Eusko Sozialistak-Basque Socialists explained what the mortgage of the sale to the fund finances the fund entails.

Onartu da! pic.twitter.com/9tyesbumOk

— Dismissals STOP Desahucios Donostia (@STOPdonostia) November 15, 2022

https://twitter.com/STOPdonostia/status/1592588192397819905?s=20&t=vtMvZhDtaIk2srh1dzjAf

https://twitter.com/STOPdonostia/status/1592588192397819905?s=20&t=vtMvZhDtaIk2srh1dzjA2008ko in order to avoid the explosion of the savings bubble and the repetition of the collateral damage caused by the explosion, calls on the parties represented in the Spanish Congress to promote measures for a wider application of the Code of Good Banking Practices, also requiring the puthree funds to implement the Code of Good Banking Practices.

More Donostiarras at risk of eviction of vulture funds Azora

Azora is a sign of what it means to transfer homes from citizens to vulture funds. The vulture Azora, after purchasing the remuneration agency Vascongada, has sent bureaucracy to several tenants informing them of the end of the rental contract. Despite the fact that they agreed to maintain the contracts and conditions of tenants of the homes acquired in 2020 with Mayor Eneko Goia, Azora has failed to honour his commitment to communicate to them on 3 November last the bureaucrat to eight residents of Gros, and the platform Tenquilinos Azora and Stop Kazeratze have recently denounced that the number of residents of Gros who received the fax has increased since.