Credit of distrust: consumer deception will cost banks billions of rubles
Banks will pay billions of rubles for deceiving consumers. The Cabinet of Ministers supported an increase in fines for market participants to 0.1% of the capital, and in case of repeated violations — up to 1%. Now the sanctions are significantly less — about 40 thousand rubles. The innovation will dramatically reduce the number of violations of the rights of borrowers and depositors — up to 80-90%, experts expect. However, large banks are opposed to the changes, they have seen the risks of destabilizing the sector. How real such a danger is and when the new rules may come into force is described in the Izvestia article.
Why do they want to increase fines for banks in Russia
In Russia, they plan to sharply increase fines for banks for deceiving consumers. The bill, which was introduced by deputies and senators, was supported by the government. The information was confirmed to Izvestia by a source in the Cabinet of Ministers. Penalties will be increased for violating the rights of depositors and borrowers.
According to the bill, the fine will be increased to 0.1% of the bank's capital (own funds), but not less than 100 thousand rubles. At the same time, if the credit institution has not corrected the violation after the instruction of the Central Bank, the penalty will amount to 1% of the capital, but not less than 1 million rubles. The bill passed the first reading in the State Duma.
Penalties are threatened for violations of consumer rights, in particular for manipulations in attracting deposits, unfair conclusion of financial services contracts, errors in calculating the full cost of a loan and the imposition of additional services (for example, insurance along with deposits or loans) — a classic example of misseling.
In practice, there have already been examples when 22 thousand cases of incorrect calculation of the full cost of a loan were found in one bank, and more than a thousand contracts in excess of the maximum payment limit were found in another bank, according to the explanatory note to the draft law.
The innovation will have a deterrent effect, as high fines can become a serious obstacle to unfair practices, said Vladimir Chernov, analyst at Freedom Finance Global. According to him, the fines are proportionate to the damage, but today banks rarely bear significant responsibility for massive violations.
Fines for such violations are now incomparably less — 20-40 thousand rubles for legal entities. In total, financial organizations spend about 5-7 million rubles a year on them, Izvestia wrote earlier.
Currently, the fine for violation of consumer rights by banks is up to 0.1% of the minimum authorized capital of a credit institution, but not more than 1 million rubles. If the violation has not been eliminated — up to 1% of the minimum authorized capital of the bank, but not more than 10 million rubles. The authorized capital is significantly less than the total, based on which calculations will be made if the bill is passed.
The authorities noted that the current fines for credit institutions do not have a sufficient impact on violators. Back in March 2024, the chairman of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, proposed to impose higher penalties.
The bill proposes to multiply the fines. The largest banks have hundreds of billions of rubles in capital. The larger the credit institution, the more it will pay for unfair practices.
So, at the end of 2024, the amount of capital, for example, at Sber reached 6.8 trillion rubles, at VTB — 2.8 trillion, at Gazprombank — 1.3 trillion, at Alfa-Bank — 855 billion, at Sovcombank — 390 billion. Therefore, if the fines are raised to the level under discussion, then unfair practices can cost players several billion rubles.
The new initiative is able to reduce the number of violations by borrowers and depositors up to 80-90%, Vladimir Chernov estimated. Andrei Barkhota also agreed with this. According to him, banks will even close some products in order not to fall under the sanctions of the Central Bank.
When will the fines for defrauding borrowers be increased many times?
Banks have expressed significant concerns about the introduction of the measure. They warn that fines of up to 0.1–1% of their capital can destabilize credit institutions, especially due to the lack of clear criteria for calculating the amount. The heads of the largest Russian banks sent such a letter to Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin, Head of the Presidential Administration Anton Vaino, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko and Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.
In a letter signed, among others, by the heads of Sberbank and VTB, German Gref and Andrey Kostin, the banks proposed introducing strict upper limits — up to 250 million rubles for violations and up to 500 million rubles for non-compliance with the instructions of the Central Bank, and also asked to apply sanctions only after discussions with the regulator.
OTP Bank told Izvestia that the bill requires deeper, more detailed study and discussion with the participation of all parties.
Izvestia also asked the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance if there were risks to financial stability due to the multiple increase in fines.
However, according to Alla Khrapunova, deputy head of the Popular Front for Borrowers' Rights project, there is no danger for banks. If their internal policy is transparent and consumer-oriented, then there will be no fines. At the same time, the measure will be a response to unfair actions of creditors, the need to introduce it is based on consumer complaints.
— Current practice shows that there is no other way out: no matter how many laws, recommendations, explanations are issued, as long as the policy of credit institutions remains on the side of profit to the detriment of the interests of consumers. A citizen is always the weaker side in relation to banks, which have a whole army of lawyers," said Alla Khrapunova.
The problem with unfair practices of banks has been repeatedly reported by the regulator and deputies. According to Vladimir Chernov, given that the government has also supported the initiative, the new rules may come into force in 2026.
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