WARSAW, June 25 (Reuters) – Poland’s justice ministry is working on streamlining procedures to unblock courts handling tens of thousands of Swiss franc mortgage loan cases and is trying to work out a standardised out-of-court settlement format, it said on Tuesday.

Hundreds of thousands of Poles took out mortgages in foreign currencies, mainly in Swiss francs, in the early to mid 2000s attracted by lower interest rates.

They are now repaying them in far bigger instalments than expected after the Swiss franc soared against the zloty and following interest rate hikes in Switzerland.