In February 1998, belatedly, the necessary legislation was put in place to inject public funds into the financial system. However, the amount of public funds injected into major financial institutions was not sufficient and their soundness continued to deteriorate. Finally, a firm resolution framework was established in October 1998, for the smooth processing of failing financial institutions including temporary nationalization.
As part of the agreement to close the first review of the current programme, all of the above were addressed afresh by the 2015 and 2016 reforms which, among other measures, legislated: (i) simplification of the social security system via the consolidation of main funds into a single social security entity (EFKA); (ii) a unified pension formula which calculates pensions as the sum of a basic component € corresponding to the 2014 poverty level, at 20 years of contributions) and a contributory component applying marginal accrual rates to lifetime pensionable earnings; (iii) new rules for calculating supplementary pensions applying, among other measures, selective cuts and freezing pensions as long as the funds remain in deficit; (iv) a change of the contribution base for the self-employed and farmers from notional to actual earnings from selfemployment subject to a minimum income limit; (v) harmonisation of main pension contributions at 20% of earnings; (vi) an increase in health contributions for retirees to 6%; (vii) an increase in supplementary pension contributions until mid-2022; (viii) phasing out of the non-contributory social solidarity benefit EKAS by end-2019; and (ix) a new, less generous, formula for the calculation of lump-sum pension benefits.