East Europe banks face pressure over Swiss franc loans

Warsaw

WHEN the Swiss franc surged at the start of the year, there were dire predictions of a wave of debt defaults by the hundreds of thousands of borrowers in eastern Europe who had taken out mortgages in the currency.

Three months on, there is no evidence of a widespread increase in the level of non-performing Swiss franc loans, according to checks by Reuters with banks in the worst-affected countries in the region, and other data.