In 2025, the acceptance rate of decisions issued by the Office of the Financial Commissioner (Ombudsman) increased to 52%, from 20% in previous years, Commissioner Valentina Georgiadou has told the House Finance Committee.
As she noted during the 12 January meeting on the Single Body's budget for Out-of-Court Resolution of Financial Disputes for the year 2026, over time the acceptance rate has been around 20%. "For 2025, we issued 58 decisions and have a 52% acceptance rate," she said, pointing out that one of the two systemic banks rarely rejects a decision by the Commissioner's Office.
At the same time, in 2025, the rate of overcharge refunds by banks and credit companies increased significantly. As she said, €170,000 was refunded in 2023, while €430,000 was refunded in 2025, which is "a significant increase for a small number of complaints."
Responding to questions from MPs about the statistics on complaints handled by the Office, Georgiadou said that in 2025, 377 complaints had been submitted by consumers, down from the 500 received last year.
At the same time, it received 437 requests outside its jurisdiction, relating to auctions or cases that have been decided by the courts and are excluded from the Commissioner's jurisdiction. Of these, she said, 215 were requests for suspension or cancellation of auctions. Of the 215, 107 suspension requests were accepted by the companies, while 89 were not accepted and the foreclosure process proceeded.
Responding to a question from a Green Party MP about what kind of properties these were, Georgiadou said that 81 of the 89 were primary residences, worth around €350,000.
She clarified, however, that in these cases, his jurisdiction is limited, and they proceed with advisory or auxiliary actions.
She also mentioned that the Office informs the public that, with regard to overcharges, interventions can also be made for performing loans. There is, however, hesitation because the Commissioner's decisions are not binding.
Asked by MPs to give her views on whether her decisions should be binding or not, Georgiadou said, "I am not against them being binding, but I am not in favour of imposing this."
As she explained, this is an out-of-court dispute resolution body and "it must be a friendly process." Georgiadou suggested that she would welcome a phased approach to the issue, for example, making decisions binding for amounts up to €10,000 to begin with.
(Source: CNA)
