Unscrupulous collectors will be brought under a criminal article: the law has earned

However, borrowers with overdue debts will not be relieved by this

In the endless domestic horror movie about unscrupulous collectors, a new storyline has appeared, designed to provide him with a happy ending. President Putin signed a bill under which “professional debt collectors” will face severe punishment in case of illegal actions on their part in relation to borrowers.

The document introduces criminal liability (in particular, up to 10 years in prison and fines of 300-500 thousand rubles) for threats of violence and damage to property, for the dissemination of knowingly false or discrediting information.

Well, at first glance – great. However, the problem is too old, multi-layered and multi-component to solve it all at once in such a frontal administrative-regulatory way. And this is far from the first attempt by the state to find justice for those who are not only specially trained to collect debts, but who clearly go too far in this difficult craft.

Even eight or ten years ago, the Internet was full of terrible stories about “black marks” and other extreme coercive measures resorted to by collectors. About, for example, how one borrower found an ax with a funeral wreath hanging from the handle in the windshield of his car. The other wife was severely beaten and had her head shaved.

In Petrozavodsk, bouncers mined a kindergarten, in Ulyanovsk they threw a Molotov cocktail into the house where a two-year-old child was sleeping, who ended up with severe burns. Today, such wild stories are almost never seen, but the sphere of collection agencies is still far from a civilized framework.

The current bill was submitted to the State Duma by a group of deputies in June 2022. As a reason, the explanatory materials indicated an increase in the number of citizens’ complaints against creditors. In 2018-2020, FSPP (Federal Bailiff Service) received 78.3 thousand of them. People reported that they were called at night, subjected to psychological pressure, openly mocked and threatened.

Meanwhile, we are talking about a repetition of what has already been passed, in fact. In 2016, No. 230-FZ “On the Protection of the Rights and Legitimate Interests of Individuals in the Implementation of Debt Recovery Activities” came into force, designed to put an end to the anarchy that prevailed before.

No one controlled the collection activity, such offices were opened in haste by legal entities, and then extortion, blackmail, threats, damage to property, and assault were used. The law formally established strict limits for collection agencies: they were entered into the FSSP registry (under the control of bailiffs), they were forbidden to call debtors uncontrollably – only during the daytime and a limited number of times.

In reality, however, many seekers staged a quiet celebration of disobedience, finding a lot of hidden ways to get around these obstacles. Some, in order to avoid responsibility, have ceased to officially introduce themselves on behalf of the agency. In such anonymous cases, the bailiffs did not intervene, criminal cases were not initiated.

If the document from 2016 has so far not fully justified itself, then on what grounds should its actual incarnation from 2023 work with a bang? And here’s what else I would like to understand. Look, in Russia there are malicious defaulters of debts, and on the other hand, aggressive collectors (in the covid 2020, banks transferred overdue debts in the amount of 582 billion rubles to collectors). And the state – it has nothing to do with it at all, its area of ​​​​responsibility is not in this story? It turns out that some people get into a dull credit bondage, and only because of their thoughtlessness, irresponsibility or financial illiteracy (today the total amount of debts of citizens to banks and MFIs exceeds 30 trillion rubles), while others criminally use this situation.

But what about the topic of falling real incomes of the population, endless rounds of inflation, the weakening ruble, the lack of economic growth in the country, the task facing people to stretch from paycheck to paycheck, to digest the tariff and regulatory lawlessness that is happening in the housing sector?

But what about the unfortunate fact that banks issue about 44% of loans to citizens who spend 80% of their income on servicing them? You can continue this series for a very long time. The thematic puzzle, in the very center of which the traits of an evil collector appear, does not add up without fragments directly related to the state.