Banks put on hold – Newspaper Kommersant No. 21 (7466) dated 02/06/2023

The government intends to ban collection of debts on loans from residents of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions until 2026. According to market participants, this may significantly reduce the interest of banks in lending to the local population. But those banks that still have to issue funds run the risk of becoming objects of “credit tourism”.

The government submitted a bill to the State Duma prohibiting, until January 1, 2026, the collection of overdue debts on loans to individuals in the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. On February 3, the Financial Market Committee recommended that it be adopted in the spring session, tentatively in March. As Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma Financial Committee, explained to Kommersant, the moratorium will affect the debts of individuals to banks and MFIs, but does not apply to debts for housing and communal services and business loans, as well as loans up to 50 thousand rubles. between individuals. Now the draft law is sent to the accelerated distribution for submission to the committee of comments, proposals and comments on it, said Mr. Aksakov. The Central Bank and the government did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

According to official data as of January, only one large Russian bank, Promsvyazbank (PSB), is currently operating in the territories of the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. Of the other players, for example, TsMRBank is known. PSB launched consumer lending for payroll clients in the DPR and LPR in November 2022. TsMRBank in October reported that it had begun considering applications for loans.

Anatoly Aksakov admits that “such a long-term moratorium may be perceived by market participants with concern and significantly reduce the lending activity of financial institutions, given the difficulties in recovering overdue payments.” In addition, he notes, market participants have concerns about the risk profile of new customers, since it is impossible to check their credit histories and real current solvency.

The head of the National Council of the Financial Market, Andrey Yemelin, believes that the bill is aimed specifically at “disincentives for lending.” In his opinion, in these regions, “in the coming years, it is more correct to solve the problems of housing and small businesses exclusively through state subsidies and state programs, and not loans.” “Under the current conditions, it is more reasonable to provide residents of the constituent entities with everything they need at the state expense, and not create an additional loan burden for them, the sources of repayment of which have yet to be created in the form of new jobs,” explains Mr. Emelin.

The current version of the bill defines as abstractly as possible the circle of persons to whom it applies, lawyers warn. “There is no specification whether we are talking about citizens simply registered in this territory or in general all citizens who actually live there,” says Yaroslav Avilov, Deputy General Director of GR Group. He adds that, as a general rule, the law does not apply to credit bureaus and does not protect debtors from worsening their history. In addition, the lawyer explains that the law does not deal with civil proceedings, respectively, if the loan collateral is recovered by court order, the bank can take it.

Market participants emphasize that the law does not say that debts will be protected from collection only on those loans that were received before the formal vote on joining the Russian Federation. As a result, one of the bankers believes, after the adoption of the law, a new type of tourism may appear in Russia – credit.

Collectors are not worried about the loss of potential business. The President of SRO NAPCA Elman Mekhtiyev doubts that the participants in this market will decide to enter the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions in the coming years, if only because in order to create demand for collection services, it is necessary to first organize the issuance of loans. And the average maturation time for a creditor to work with professional debt collectors in any new territories, he adds, is just about three years.

Maxim Buylov, Polina Trifonova