Nabiullina debunked the myth of the invulnerability of the Russian economy: reasons for concern named

One of the main – preferential mortgage

The Russian economy has coped well with the challenges of 2022, but this is no reason to relax. Elvira Nabiullina conveyed this idea to the senators today. The Central Bank still has a lot of reasons for concern. Among them are “pumped over” preferential mortgages, excessive debt load of Russians, assets frozen by the West and the need to deal with financial fraudsters.

“The Russian economy went well in 2022. But this should not lead to the conclusion of invulnerability,” Elvira Nabiullina warned, speaking at the Federation Council. “The situation in the country and the world is changing rapidly, while external conditions remain extremely aggressive,” the head of the Central Bank said.

According to Nabiullina, bankers are seriously concerned about the situation in the mortgage lending market. In her opinion, mortgages were pumped up too much by preferential and pseudo-preferential programs.

“Now, through our measures, we are limiting low down payment mortgages so that mortgages grow in a balanced way, and not by overburdening people with a burden that they cannot bear, and so that this does not lead to rising house prices – stressed the head of the Central Bank.

The Central Bank will also target the growth rate of retail lending and the problem of over-indebtedness of the population.

– This segment has strongly dipped in the past year. But now it is also recovering quickly. It is important that it does not grow faster than people’s incomes, because this will lead to an excessive debt burden of our citizens and carries the risk of increasing debt load, – Elvira Nabiullina noted and added that some banks confuse people and hide the real cost of a loan behind various commissions and additional services. So far, the Central Bank has given recommendations to banks on how to disclose information about a loan.

But, as Nabiullina emphasized, tougher measures are needed, changes to the law and requirements for advertising loans so that people are not misled. But there is a more serious problem:

– Of course, such a dishonest bank creativity is bad. But it is much worse when people fall into the hands of scammers. After that, they will generally avoid the financial sector, keep money at home, this money will not work for the economy. Therefore, the fight against scammers of all kinds – from pyramid schemes to social engineering – is an important part of the work.

The head of the Central Bank complained that it takes a lot of time for auditors to prove that a pyramid is a pyramid. However, a bill has recently been prepared by senators that makes it easier to block funds on the accounts of fraudulent offices. The Central Bank supports the amendments.

It will help in the fight against financial fraudsters and a self-prohibition on issuing loans.

– Fraudsters have fallen in love with a scheme in which, with the participation of a person or even without him, they draw up loans for him. We have a lot of complaints about this topic. If a person will be able to introduce a self-prohibition, it will be impossible to give him a loan. If a person needs a loan, he can lift the ban. But we suggest that this withdrawal take place with a time lag. So that a person does not succumb to the persuasion of scammers and does not immediately lift this ban, harming himself, – said Elvira Nabiullina.

Well, for business, one of the global problems now is how to build relationships with foreign investors from friendly countries. The Central Bank is now working hard on building payment chains, but the fly in the ointment is added by the fact that now companies do not publish statements for fear of falling under sanctions. For potential investors, this lack of transparency is a serious risk. The Central Bank believes that it is necessary to return to the publication of financial statements.

– There are sanctions risks here, we all understand this very well. But it is important that under the guise of such risks they do not hide the information that is needed for the development of the market. This information may be published with exceptions on sensitive topics, but it must be published. This is very important for establishing trust,” Nabiullina stressed.