Banks will provide free services only to preferential categories of citizens when paying for housing and communal services
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More than three years of struggle for the abolition of bank commissions for payment of housing and communal services (HCS) ended in an unexpected compromise. Just a week ago, the market was confident that commissions would be abolished completely, but as a result, benefits were introduced only for preferential categories of needy citizens. Now the volume of commissions is estimated at 14 billion rubles. per year, and it is not yet clear how much they will decrease. But bankers are already talking about compensating for lost income through other products.
According to the decision adopted on Thursday, December 7, in the second and third readings bill about commissions for paying housing and communal services for citizens, banks and agents retained the ability to charge a commission for these services. An exception is made for categories of citizens in need of social support, the list of which must be determined by the government.
The law passed its first reading in April 2020. In that version of the document it was proposed to prohibit taking commissions from all citizens when paying for housing and communal services. Banks that were not satisfied with this approach proposed to shift the payment of their costs to organizations, which, in turn, did not suit participants in the housing and communal services market (see “Kommersant” dated April 15, 2020).
The fight against the idea of exempting everyone from paying commissions continued until the last day. Just a week ago, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing and Communal Services Svetlana Razvorotneva told Kommersant that the version of the law prepared for the second reading provides for a ban on charging commissions for payments for housing and communal services of all individuals without exception (see “Kommersant” dated November 30 And December 1).
Bankers and market participants consider the adopted document a compromise. The Association of Guaranteed Suppliers and Energy Sales Companies “previously supported this option as a compromise together with other industry associations.”
The Association of Regional Overhaul Operators also approves the exemption of preferential categories from paying commissions, noting that for such citizens “any commissions are very sensitive.”
The Russian Association of Water Supply and Sanitation also noted that in its current form, the adopted document “will practically not change the current procedure for charging commissions for payment for housing and communal services – banks and other paying agents will still be able to take it from the population or, in order to attract new clients, transfer the commission to myself”.
Bankers, meanwhile, emphasize that already more than half of citizens do not pay commission. As explained by the head of the National Council of the Financial Market (NCFM), Andrei Emelin, according to the banks themselves, 70% of payments for housing and communal services are made through remote channels with zero commission, another 20% is paid through a mobile bank or Internet bank, but with a commission of less than 1%. And only the remaining 10% of citizens personally come to the office to pay – for them the commission is about 2%, he notes.
Considering that, according to participants in the housing and communal services market, the total amount of payments is 3.5 trillion rubles. per year, then the amount of commissions paid by citizens is about 14 billion rubles.
As Mr. Emelin notes, a significant portion of citizens in need of social support are precisely in the group that personally visits bank offices. “Banks incur the main costs when citizens personally contact a bank branch, and in this case it is critically important to determine at the moment that the payer belongs to a preferential category and the bank should not charge him a commission,” explains the head of the NSFR.
At the same time, the vice-president of the Association of Russian Banks, Alexei Voylukov, believes that as a result of the adoption of the law, commissions for other products will increase, including for citizens who fall into the preferential category for housing and communal services. “Accepting payments for housing and communal services is a non-core banking service that needs to be maintained and developed in the modern form to which all citizens are already accustomed, namely one pay sheet, where all data is filled in automatically for clients,” he is sure. In his opinion, in general, this is a non-market and not entirely logical approach, when the state shifts its social functions to commercial participants. It would be more correct, Mr. Voylukov believes, to increase the social part of payments to the desired category of citizens.
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