Services are not disconnected from Russians – Kommersant FM

Russians began to more often complain to the Central Bank about imposed services when applying for a loan. Financial institutions, as reported by the regulator, are persistently offering clients various insurance policies. But there are also more non-standard options, for example, the services of an astrologer and psychologist. This was reported in the press service of the Central Bank. At the same time, most claims are related to the inability to return money for an additional service already completed under a loan agreement concluded more than a year ago.

Banks are actively selling, and probably will sell, additional services because it brings them significant income, emphasized Pavel Samiev, general director of the analytical agency BusinessDrom:

“The problem of imposition is typical for many banks, both retail and universal. It is clear that these are mostly large players, because the flow and large scale of the client base are important here.

However, some of these services are generally useful for customers. It happens that this is some kind of story that is quite, perhaps necessary, but it is sold in such a way that it is often impossible to refuse it, or this client really does not even understand that he is buying it, that it is actually included in the cost of the loan.

If with insurance it is still possible to understand that the presence of such protection reduces risks, including for the bank, then other services should not affect the cost of the loan.

If previously these were most often just such services, over the past few years this structure has indeed diversified greatly, with many services appearing: medical, in particular telemedicine, and various concierge services, and even programs, for example, psychological support.

In this case, since this service is imposed, one might say, pre-installed with the loan, there is not even an opportunity to somehow challenge its price, conditions, and so on.

At the same time, the bank has the right to refuse to issue a loan to any client, and therefore, in general, the manager may well use some neat wording, indirect, that if you do not buy additional services, then there will be problems with the approval of the loan.

In fact, this is a completely working story, it is wrong, but at the same time for the bank it means a lot of commission income. It can be formulated in such a way that the client will understand the situation as if he will not receive a loan if he does not agree to such conditions.

Commission income, especially based on the sale of such products – from insurance to various concierge services – is a very significant share in the profit structure of banks, and it is growing.

Some retail players who actually earn quite a lot from consumer loans, however, can actually earn more from such services than the interest margin on the loans.”

According to the law, the client has a so-called “cooling off period”, during which he can refuse additional services imposed by the bank. From January 2024, its duration is going to be increased to a month.

It is possible to resist the imposition of additional services by banks, but the procedure is not easy, noted Lyudmila Trifonova, a lawyer at the Europrotection Bar Association:

“Forcing services in our country is illegal. I think that a class action lawsuit should be filed here, but it should be based on something.

We still have a Consumer Protection Society, and public organizations have the right to file such claims. But for this it is necessary that there are people who will write their statements and ask for help.

You can also contact the Central Bank so that it invalidates such transactions and obliges banks that issue loans, accordingly, not to impose these services. This is the only way I could recommend doing it. We have consumer organizations that can be approached, and I think they will be happy to take on this.”

As Kommersant wrotethis summer, at a meeting with the heads of microfinance organizations, top managers of the Bank of Russia promised to exclude MFOs from the register for imposing additional services on clients.

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Andrey Zagorsky