Amendments have been made to the advertisement – ​​Kommersant FM

Russian banks will have to disclose maximum loan rates starting next week. On October 23, changes to the Law “On Advertising” will come into force, according to which credit organizations will have to indicate in their materials not only attractive minimum, but also the highest interest rates on loans. The norm applies to both text messages, including on the websites of banks and microfinance organizations, and advertising with sound, the Central Bank and the FAS emphasized. The regulators also clarified that the client will be able to immediately see what additional paid goods or services he will have to purchase in order to receive a loan at the minimum rate.

As a result, banks and microfinance organizations will have to significantly saturate updated advertising with information, noted Aleksey Kazarin, CEO of the Credit Specialist System company:

“Credit organizations will have to indicate the real cost of the loan, including additional associated costs for obtaining it. If this is a consumer loan, then the cost of insurance is added here. If it is a mortgage, both the insurance amount and also the costs of appraising the property that is used as security.

When applying to banks for a consumer loan that is unsecured by collateral, interest rates vary, first of all, depending on the category of borrowers. For salary clients, lower rates are offered, for street clients they are higher. The run-up is usually about 4-5%.

As for the mortgage product, there is no such range, because interest rates are almost the same for everyone, the only thing is that for salary clients they are usually 0.5% lower.”

According to the new rules, banks and microfinance organizations will have to display full information about the cost of the loan in the same font as the most attractive interest rates. At the same time, the parameters should be equally noticeable, the Central Bank clarified.

The advertising market, however, had time to prepare for these changes, noted Sergei Zhitinets, general director of the advertising agency Motive agency&production:

“Companies that traditionally cooperate with the banking sector and organizations issuing loans are aware that such a bill has been prepared since its discussion in the Federation Council began in mid-summer.

I am sure that at the moment creative solutions and options for layout layouts exist in one form or another. The cost of work on preparing content or advertising layouts, if it increases, will probably be insignificant.

In principle, the contribution of the designer, art director and the creative team in general will remain the same. Therefore, you should not assume that prices for creative preparation will suddenly skyrocket.

But the teams, of course, will have to work hard, because taking into account all the new requirements for font size and the visibility of all previously hidden conditions is a serious task.”

At the same time, the authorities did not spell out in the new law what threatens banks if they do not indicate in advertising the range of the full cost of loans. And market participants can use such an argument in controversial situations, at least for now, explained Maxim Ali, a partner at the law firm Comply:

“Previously, the law said that it was necessary to communicate to clients all the conditions that affect the full cost of the loan. The wording in the Code of Administrative Offenses remained exactly as it was. Now we are not talking about the need to indicate the entire loan amount.

A legal conflict arises that banks can use, for example, if they are fined

That is, credit institutions can pay attention to the fact that the specific amount of punishment is not currently prescribed; accordingly, they are not to blame for the fact that the legislator did not make these amendments.

But I would say that you need to focus on a fine of 300 thousand rubles. up to 800 thousand rubles. for legal entities. For large banks this is hardly a significant amount if we are talking about large-scale advertising campaigns. But, for example, for microfinance organizations this can be noticeable.”

Previously, the Federal Antimonopoly Service demanded that the credit institution publicly admit to dishonest advertising. She recognized as improper a Raiffeisenbank television commercial about a debit cashback card with the slogans “Cashback for everything,” “Cashback for everything without conditions and restrictions,” “1.5% in rubles, not points.” At the same time, the conditions and restrictions on the service were communicated quickly and only in small print.

The courts sided with the FAS in this matter, and the credit institution must now, at its own expense, show counter-advertising in prime time, indicating in it that the previous advertisement was unreliable.

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Vladimir Rasulov