Clients complain about Sberbank mortgage terms
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Mortgage lending leader Sberbank has made a reduced rate on its programs dependent on the purchase of a package of services from its insurance company and a subscription to SberPrime – bank customers complain about this. Lawyers talk about a possible violation of antitrust laws, emphasizing that such practices are fraught with problems and losses for other market participants, and the bank itself is threatened with fines. This is confirmed by the FAS and the Central Bank.
On the Banki.ru portal, there were complaints from Sberbank customers about the inability to receive a reduced mortgage rate without registering the Domclick Plus service package. “After confirming the mortgage at a reduced rate, an added paid Domclick Plus service package appeared in the Domclick personal account, although I did not give consent to it,” says one of the victims, adding that the cost of Domclick Plus per year significantly exceeds the cost of life and health insurance. Another client said that in the process of approving the object, he used all the services of the bank that affect the rate reduction, and at the very end, the managers said that it was necessary to buy the Domclick Plus package.
According to the Domclick website, Domclick Plus is a package that includes life and health insurance from Sberbank Life Insurance, as well as a subscription to SberPrime (watching movies, listening to music, etc.). The package of services allows you to lower the rate by 1 percentage point when obtaining a mortgage from Sberbank. The website says that insurance with another company will not lower your mortgage rate. Since the end of June this year, the action has been valid in 25 regions of Russia, since August – in all. In 2024, it is planned to extend it not only to new loans, but also to the prolongation portfolio.
Sberbank assures that the client makes the decision to purchase the Domclick Plus package on his own and has the right to refuse it after applying for a mortgage loan. According to the Domclick website, in case of refusal, termination of the contract is possible only with an increase in the mortgage rate.
According to the Central Bank, the volume of mortgage loans in June reached 627 billion rubles. The number of issued mortgage loans was at the level of 168 thousand. Sberbank’s mortgage portfolio increased by 2.8% in June to more than 8.5 trillion rubles. (growth since the beginning of the year by 14%). In the first half of 2023, the bank issued 558 thousand housing loans for 1.8 trillion rubles.
The volume of issuance of mortgage loans by Sberbank is more than 50% of the total volume, respectively, the volume of mortgage insurance also accounts for the lion’s share, explains Anna Morozova, Director for Development of the Digital Mortgage Insurance Service FAST.Ipoteka. According to her, the losses of other insurers due to the conditions of “Domclick Plus” for the next year may amount to 15-20% of fees. But, the expert emphasizes, the situation will worsen, since in order to maintain the rate without increasing, the client is obliged to extend the service package until the end date of the loan agreement or early repayment of the loan. Kommersant’s sources among insurers claim that “the fees of companies in the mortgage segment, where Sberbank’s action has been launched, have already fallen to almost zero.”
Experts believe that this practice may be contrary to antitrust laws. Such actions can be regarded as the conclusion of an anticompetitive agreement between the bank and the insurance company, says Kulik & Partners Law.Economics lawyer Pavel Dmitriev. When the fact of violation by the participants of the anti-competitive agreement is established, an order to eliminate it may be issued, and they may also be subject to a “turnover” fine of up to 5% of the amount of revenue from the sale of the service, and officials may be disqualified.
The imposition by a bank of the services of a particular insurance company in order to reduce the interest rate on a mortgage may be considered unacceptable, adds Elena Kuznetsova, head of the Antimonopoly Law practice at the law firm Rustam Kurmaev and Partners.
“The opportunity to receive a discount to the interest rate on the loan, subject to the purchase of a package of services only with the insurance of a certain insurer, contradicts those laid down in the “General Exceptions” (cases of admissibility of agreements between banks and insurers.— “b”) principles. The borrower should have the opportunity to change the previously selected insurance company during the entire loan period without changing the interest rate,” the FAS confirmed.
The Central Bank also notes that any practices that artificially limit the rights of consumers to independently choose additional services or insurance products to reduce interest rates are unfair.
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