Credit holidays for the mobilized: how it works

On September 21, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation recommended that banks and microfinance organizations provide credit holidays to mobilized citizens. For a delay in payments or a reduction in their size for all types of loans, including mortgages, for the period of mobilization, they can apply to their financial institution, the regulator said.

At the same time, on the same day, the head of the State Duma Defense Committee, Andrei Kartapolov, said that the military personnel called up for the special operation would have to pay the mortgage. Then Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the State Duma committee on the financial market, said that the Russian authorities would finalize the bill on permanent credit holidays so that it would automatically grant a deferment to those mobilized.

Why the authorities do not have a unified position on such an important issue, “MK” dealt with experts.

Partial mobilization, as you know, includes 300,000 reservists who served in the army, have combat experience and a highly demanded military specialty. Even from the description, it appears that they mean men over the age of 30, who, according to all banking criteria, belong to the most economically active category of the population.

Recall that at the moment, on a permanent basis, deferrals under the law can only be used for mortgages, for all other types of loans, the holidays are temporary – they are valid only until September 30.

And, although a group of senators and deputies submitted to the State Duma a bill to make credit holidays permanent for all types of loans, its fate has not yet been decided. Now it can be partially rewritten.

According to Aksakov’s statement, in the course of finalizing this law, the fact of the borrower’s participation in the SVO may be taken into account. According to the deputy, those who took a loan and ended up in the NWO zone should be calm that this will not be a heavy burden on his family and on himself.

Most likely, a significant proportion of those mobilized already have a loan, and someone may have more than one, although it is difficult to calculate the total amount of their debt at the moment.

“One mobilized citizen may not have loans at all, another may have a mortgage and a car loan, someone has his own business with a large loan burden,” says Pavel Utkin, leading lawyer at Parthenon. But 300,000 middle-aged men are the most economically active population, and their removal from the financial chains of payments as a result will cost either banks or the state a round sum. With short-term delays in loan repayments, there will be no particular problems, but this will definitely affect the long term, the expert is sure.

Perhaps this is precisely what is connected with the fact that the Central Bank of the Russian Federation gave the banks not a clear order, but only a recommendation, which, in principle, can not be followed.

“The Bank of Russia makes a recommendation in cases where it is not about the rules for interaction between banks and borrowers, but about the commercial activities of banks,” explains Diana Sork, a member of the supreme coordinating council of the Confederation of Consumer Societies (ConfOP). In essence, the state interferes in this commercial activity, but at the same time does not want to participate in compensating for losses that banks may incur, the expert noted.

According to ConfOP, in 2020, less than 5% of those who applied to banks were able to use “covid” credit holidays. This time the situation may develop according to a similar scenario. In addition, the issue of payments on loans in the event of the death of the borrower has not been resolved. The debt can be recovered from the heirs.

But, perhaps, the regulator’s recommendations are given for a while until the relevant law is adopted. According to Pavel Medvedev, financial ombudsman of the Association of Russian Banks, throughout his many years of practice, combat veterans have not approached him with loan problems. He believes that the Central Bank simply outlined the problem, and it should be solved at the level of the law, and it will soon be adopted. But then it is difficult to explain Kartapolov’s statements on the mortgage, which the mobilized must pay.

“As far as it is known from official sources, the mobilized will receive at least 200 thousand rubles a month, and the scheme for repaying their mortgages remotely has already been developed,” explains the owner of the construction company Maxim Lazovsky. The state could compensate for payments mobilized at the expense of budgetary funds, but this will create an additional burden on the budget, which in the SVO regime is already large, the expert noted.

In general, while the situation is similar to the fact that the authorities do not want to offend the banks, but “lay a straw” in the form of recommendations on credit holidays for the mobilized. It will be possible to see how the situation will change with the adoption of the law only after its promulgation.