Cooling-off period, self-prohibitions, “second hand”: how the Central Bank protects citizens from financial scammers

"Imposing services has become economically unprofitable"

— Do banks still account for the bulk of the total number of claims against financial institutions? Has the law on handling citizens' appeals, which was adopted last summer, affected the situation in any way?

— Of the total number of complaints, and we reviewed over 338 thousand requests last year, credit institutions account for 60.7%. So, indeed, people complain about the actions of banks most often. Moreover, the number of complaints about banks has increased by 25.3% over the year. For comparison, MFIs have the opposite dynamics: the number of complaints about them has decreased by 22.1% over the past year.

Most of the requests come to large banks, but this is expected, since they have a huge client base. People who most often could not solve their problems themselves come to us. We help to sort out advanced cases.

On July 1, 2024, a law came into force in Russia, according to which all banks, insurance companies, non-state pension funds, microfinance organizations (MFOs) and other participants in the financial market are required to respond to citizens' requests within 15 working days. This has changed the situation for the better. Previously, banks, if they received a complaint from a client, decided for themselves whether to respond to it or not. Now the Bank of Russia has the right to demand that these organizations respond to complaints in a timely manner. We can also control the quality of the response to these requests and ensure that the financial institution tries to fully resolve the problem. The effect of the new law is already noticeable: citizens have re-submitted less than 2% of all complaints about banks to the Bank of Russia.

— How do things stand in this case with the “long-standing sin” of banks – the imposition of additional products?

— The situation has improved. If earlier a client could come to the bank for a loan and return with a full basket of contracts and subscriptions to a variety of services — from telemedicine to legal assistance, now this is impossible. With the participation of the Bank of Russia, amendments were made to the legislation, which came into force in January last year. Now, in addition to the loan agreement, the bank must provide the client with two more documents. The first specifies all the conditions and additional services that affect the rate and loan parameters. The second — all the services and additional services that do not affect the fact of issuing the loan and its parameters. At the same time, the client can safely refuse additional services, that is, not sign the second document. This will not have any consequences for him. You can also refuse the services under the first agreement, but then you need to be prepared for a change in the loan parameters. For example, if you refuse insurance, the lender can raise the rate — this is how he insures his risks. But at the same time, the lender must inform the borrower how exactly it will change. In addition, even if a person has signed both contracts, the next day he should receive an SMS or push notification, where all additional conditions will be listed again. This message will also indicate how to refuse them if the person changes his mind about using the offered services. As a result, imposition has become economically unprofitable.

Thanks to these measures, the number of complaints about the imposition of additional services in banks has decreased by 45.2% compared to 2023, and in MFIs - more than twice. In my opinion, this is not enough, complaints about imposition should disappear completely along with this phenomenon. Therefore, if there were violations, we urge people not to let things slide. For us, such complaints are a signal that you need to come to a bank, MFI or other financial institution for an inspection, make a "secret purchase", and if we identify a violation, we will demand that the financial institution restore the consumer's rights.

— Last year, human rights activists pointed out the problem with misselling ( this is the name for the unfair practice of selling financial products, when under the guise of one service, for example, a deposit, the client is issued another, most often insurance with an investment component. — MK). Are there any changes in this area?

— In 2024, the number of cases of misselling about which we received complaints decreased by more than half. But, unfortunately, it cannot be said that unfair sales have completely disappeared. We are currently working to increase the responsibility of banks for such practices. If a financial institution has received illegal income of a billion rubles by resorting to unfair sales, then a fine of a million will not fix the matter. It is easier for banks to pay it and continue to violate the law. We believe it is right to increase fines to a level where financial liability becomes comparable to the amount of illegally obtained benefits. The Government and the Federal Assembly support this approach.

— Judging by the statistics of complaints, many complaints are related to violations in obtaining car loans. Is the Bank of Russia fighting destructive practices in car loans?

- Of course. Unfortunately, the imposition of additional services from banks, where it has greatly decreased, has migrated to car dealers. Sometimes car loans are arranged in such a way that the client is sure that it is absolutely impossible to get a loan for a car without additional services.

We have prepared a review of unfair practices in car loans, described them in great detail on our website. The largest banks took our recommendations into account and adopted a memorandum "On the principles of fair car loans", according to which they undertake not to cooperate with unscrupulous car dealers. We will see whether the market will comply with the requirements of the memorandum, and if not, then we will have to move on to more decisive measures, including at the legislative level.

"Hang up immediately!"

— In recent years, the problem of telephone fraud in Russia has become increasingly widespread. At the end of last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin reported that these criminals had stolen more than 250 billion rubles from Russians. What is the Bank of Russia doing to protect citizens from this disaster?

— Unfortunately, we review hundreds of such cases every week. Sometimes we manage to help the victims. But more often it happens that a person himself, unwittingly, of course, helps the scammers and gives them confidential information. In no case can people be blamed for this: the scammers practically zombify them. But it is much more difficult to help them in such a case.

In my opinion, the problem of this kind of crime needs to be solved systematically. First of all, people need to constantly improve their financial culture and, of course, cyber literacy. On the Financial Culture portal of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, there is a section called "Rakes", where we regularly update information about new scammers' schemes and how not to fall for the bait of scammers. This has to be done because scammers are constantly improving their arsenal of tricks. My universal advice: as soon as someone asks you for any personal information or any codes on the phone, hang up immediately. It is even better not to answer calls from unfamiliar numbers at all. However, this is now more difficult to do, since scammers have learned to forge numbers and logos of any departments and organizations. They often call a person on behalf of the Investigative Committee, the Bank of Russia, the MFC or other government organizations. And yet, as soon as the conversation turns to personal data, real estate data, any codes or passwords, hang up!

Since last summer, banks have been required to block transfers to suspicious accounts for two days. True, it happens that a bank "slows down" a regular transfer. And people are unhappy about this. However, it is probably better this way than if a person loses their money forever. Moreover, we see that the majority - about 60% - manage to understand in these two days that they could have become victims of fraud.

— In addition to banks’ readiness to block suspicious transfers, does the Bank of Russia propose any other measures to combat fraudsters at the legislative level?

— The Bank of Russia has come up with three initiatives that should help protect citizens from fraudsters. The first has already become law. The State Duma recently passed a bill on a cooling-off period when receiving a loan. From September 1, when this rule comes into effect throughout Russia, the lender will be able to transfer money to the borrower only four hours after the conclusion of the agreement for amounts from 50 thousand to 200 thousand rubles. And if the loan was larger, then only after 48 hours. Statistics show that a significant number of victims who have been under the influence of fraudsters realize what happened within a few hours to a couple of days, so this measure will help solve some of the problems.

Our second initiative, which has also become a law and will be in effect since March 1, is the ability to set a self-prohibition on issuing loans through State Services. If a person later wants to regain the right to receive loans, he will also be able to remove it through State Services, but he will need to sign the UNEP "Gosklyuch" (enhanced unqualified electronic signature) or UKEP (enhanced qualified electronic signature). This greatly reduces the risk of such a self-prohibition being removed by a fraudster if he fraudulently gains access to a person's personal account on State Services. If a person does not have such signatures, he will be able to remove the self-prohibition only in person at the MFC. But even after this, the self-prohibition will be in effect for another 2 days - which will further reduce the risks of receiving loans under the influence of fraudsters.

The third bill, which is planned to be adopted in the spring session, is the “second hand” service (this is the name of the opportunity, by agreement with the bank, for other persons, usually close relatives, to confirm transactions with large sums of money for people who are not sure that they will be able to recognize fraud. - “MK” ). The Bank of Russia conducted a “pilot” with a number of banks, and it showed good results. I believe that this service will be popular mainly with the older generation. If a person usually made transfers of up to 10 thousand rubles, and then suddenly decided to send someone 150 thousand rubles at once, then this is really suspicious. If he has the “second hand” service connected, then the trusted person will receive a notification about the transfer. It will be much more difficult for fraudsters to deceive two people at the same time, so such a measure should also help protect citizens.

"The person had 30 loans"

— Many of our citizens are interested in the situation with mortgage lending. What has changed for Russians with the introduction of the mortgage standard by the Bank of Russia?

— Its main goal is to inform borrowers in detail about mortgage terms and minimize high-risk property sales schemes. For a long time, it was possible to find housing loan offers at 5% per annum on the housing market, while the market mortgage was about 10%. The developer, together with the bank, simply included the remaining interest in the cost of housing, which was sold much higher than the market price. We expect that the mortgage standard will put an end to this practice.

It also establishes a ban on long-term placement of mortgage funds in letters of credit. Money in letters of credit, unlike escrow accounts, is not insured. If the bank goes bankrupt, no one will return it to the borrowers. In addition, the bank will no longer have the right to receive compensation from the developer for a reduced mortgage rate if this leads to an increase in the price of the apartment. And although the mortgage standard only came into effect on January 1, we can already see that the market is feeling its impact.

— In April 2023, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation proposed introducing a comprehensive debt settlement standard. What can be said about it today, that is, almost two years later?

— The point of this standard is to simplify the procedure for settling a debt if a person has more loans than one bank or MFI. Personally, in my practice I have encountered a case when a person had 30 loans in different banks and MFIs. This is, of course, an exception, but people having two or more loans is a common story today: according to our data, there are more than 10 million such people.

If a person has loans in several financial institutions and understands that he cannot cope with them, he can come to his bank and ask to restructure the debt with all creditors at the same time. The entire procedure should take 30 days - banks and other creditors will agree among themselves to whom and in what order the debtor will repay the debts. So far, 19 banks have voluntarily joined the standard, which have already carried out 29 thousand transactions on comprehensive settlement. We expect that this year the State Duma will adopt a law on comprehensive pre-trial debt settlement, which will make this standard mandatory for all banks and MFIs. The President gave a separate instruction on this matter.

— How popular are credit holidays among Russians? Has anything changed since the credit holiday mechanism became permanent for citizens?

— The holidays are in demand. Over the four quarters of 2024, about 500 thousand applications for credit holidays were received, with the largest number — 171.2 thousand — in the last quarter. This is explained by the fact that more and more people are learning about this bankruptcy prevention mechanism.

This measure was introduced as an anti-crisis measure during the pandemic, but it turned out to be effective, and therefore it was decided to make it permanent. Now any borrower who finds himself in a difficult situation can receive a guaranteed deferment on loan repayment for six months. As practice shows, this time is enough for most to cope with problems. But to receive a holiday, a person must prove to the bank that his income has decreased, and he will not be able to repay the loan on time. Another reason for receiving a holiday may be an emergency. If these conditions are not met, then, most likely, the bank will offer the client a restructuring under its own program, which will also help to cope with the debt. In 2024 alone, 1.2 million loans worth 600 billion rubles were settled through this procedure.

— In 2024, Russians complained en masse to the Central Bank because they disagreed with the accrual of interest on deposits. Why? Advertising does not meet people's expectations of deposits?

— Today, banks compete with each other for depositors, just as they used to compete for borrowers, and they try to highlight the most attractive options for cooperation in their advertising. For example, a client is offered to open a deposit at 26% per annum. But when he comes to the bank, he learns that only new clients who deposit 5 million rubles at once, open an investment account and enter into a life insurance contract will receive such a percentage. But the advertising did not say anything about this. We see that the number of complaints about such practices has increased. But this is not about the products themselves, but about incorrect information about them. The Bank of Russia is closely monitoring this. Each credit institution that was found to have such practices was given recommendations on what should be corrected. In some places they have already been implemented, and in others they are in the process of being corrected... We also suggested that banks develop an internal standard related to the provision of information on the fair return on deposits and all additional conditions. Either they themselves will offer it, or the situation will have to be regulated at the level of law.