Russian banks announced problems with the verification of mobilized

Checking applications for credit holidays has to be done manually

Russian banks faced difficulties in obtaining credit holidays for mobilized people. Each financial organization has its own practice of verifying such statements, since it is almost impossible to get answers from the Ministry of Defense that a citizen is called up to participate in a special military operation (SVO). The difficulties that arose caused the Association of Banks of Russia (ADB) to appeal to Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma committee on the financial market. Market participants claim that some banks are forced to send employees to military registration and enlistment offices with lists of those wishing to receive credit holidays to check documents and check everything manually. About how the authorities plan to solve the problem that has arisen – in the material “MK”.

There is no officially working mechanism for verifying the justification for credit holidays for mobilized citizens in the financial market. The Ministry of Defense has never collected such data centrally. And information about those called up to participate in the SVO is most often, in general, contained on paper – in orders, personal files and cards in military registration and enlistment offices.

According to the law, in order to prove their right to credit holidays, the borrower is obliged to provide the bank with documents confirming the status of a military man. You can do this “before the end of the grace period.” The clarifications of the Central Bank of September 21 say that supporting documents may be extracts from the orders of the commander of a military unit or military commissariat and other documents. The regulator recommended banks not to request supporting documents if there is reason to believe that the applied citizen is entitled to credit holidays, for example, receives a military allowance to an account in the same bank. But it should be noted that not only the military personnel themselves, but also their relatives and friends who have a power of attorney, including in a simple written form, can apply for credit holidays. But even if the borrower did not provide documents stating that he was entitled to credit holidays according to the status of a mobilized person, this cannot be a reason for refusing them. He has the right to do this within 30 days after the termination of the CBO.

As a result, banks have developed very different practices for verifying applications for credit holidays from mobilized citizens. So, in the second largest state-owned bank in Russia, they said that when applying for a loan holiday for this category of borrowers, no supporting documents are required from them, and their family members only need to confirm their relationship (for example, it is enough for spouses to show a marriage certificate) . In other large banks, a citizen may be asked to provide a summons, an extract from an order, a military ID with a stamp on being sent to a military unit. Often one agenda is not enough, since not all those called up are mobilized, moreover, one such document is easy to forge. “In our opinion, such a problem could arise due to the fact that the events with partial mobilization unfolded quite quickly and the mechanism for providing benefits was not debugged,” says Kirill Reznik, a member of the Russian Bar Association. – It can also be noted that the law specifies the right, and not the obligation of the mobilized person to provide documents to the bank. Apparently, this implies that an application for a loan holiday can be submitted without supporting documents at all, and the bank must make sure that the applicant is really mobilized.”

It is also clear that when a person was called up, his thoughts are occupied not with obtaining extracts from the order, but with other concerns, so banks are asked to show what they have, and then manually check the information with the military registration and enlistment offices. The lender has ten days to respond to the borrower’s application. All these problems became the reason for ADB’s appeal to the profile committee of the State Duma for help.

Market participants expect that in a month they will have a more effective tool for checking the status of a citizen. Starting November 23, lenders will be able to clarify the validity of an application for a deferral of loans at the Federal Tax Service (FTS). “The Association of Banks of Russia proposed using the System of Interdepartmental Electronic Interaction in order to bring data from the Ministry of Defense to credit organizations,” said Alexei Voylukov, vice president of the organization. “Relevant changes have been made to the law, and this mechanism will be implemented within a month: banks will be able to request data from the Federal Tax Service, which in turn will receive them from the Ministry of Defense.” In the meantime, banks will be guided by the recommendations of the regulator. Applicants for credit holidays can submit any available documents, including remotely – through a mobile application, by e-mail – and banks, by law, must consider them, the expert emphasized.