Ksenia Dementieva about wordplay in debt collection

Playing with names and abbreviations that are confusingly similar to well-known brands is an old, well-known technique, but no less reliable. Moreover, if we are talking about such a risky area as finance, it is often more profitable to prefer a strong commercial name to a hint of state reliability.

Collectors especially like to use this technique, for whom, against the backdrop of all sorts of restrictions and prohibitions, it has become difficult for them to effectively collect debts. The most obvious option here would seem to be names that are in tune with the theme of bailiffs and the FSSP. But this practice was stopped back in 2011 by introducing a corresponding ban. It is prohibited to contact the names of the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and it is simply risky.

But there is a government agency in the financial market that is unlucky in this sense—the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA). The name is not protected, although it is not widely known to citizens, it is also associated with the collection of debts from bankrupt banks. A very good option. Collectors did not ignore it, especially the abbreviation.

Of course, there are also completely transparent legitimate cases. For example, there are two Judicial Collection Agencies (DIA and DIA-Region), which have been operating for several years and have not caused any particular complaints. If their name hints at some kind of state status, it is not through association with the DIA.

However, for example, a new collection agency PKO “ASV.Uslugi” recently appeared, established in the form of an LLC in Vsevolozhsk, Leningrad Region. And judging by the complaints of the debtors who contacted me, they just mistook it for some kind of subsidiary structure of a respected government organization. When addressing debtors, “ASV.Services” does not spell out the abbreviation.

DIA, Kommersant sources say, does not create collection structures and is not happy about the popularity of its own abbreviation. “Usually the agency prefers to sue in such situations, demanding to abandon the name,” says Kommersant’s interlocutor familiar with the situation.

Meanwhile, recently there are more and more people wanting to join the image of the DIA. Thus, according to Fedresurs, this abbreviation is now used in the name by 338 existing legal entities. Finding out which of them meant what, and especially through the courts, is definitely not a core matter for a structure involved in deposit insurance. Therefore, DIA took a different path. Soon its name will become protected. The corresponding bill has already been submitted to the State Duma for consideration. So collectors and other participants in the financial market will have to look for new cover.