OREANDA-NEWS  In 2023, the number of complaints from citizens about the imposition of additional services when applying for loans increased in Russia. Over this period of time, the average value of the volume of imposition of such services has also increased, said Mikhail Mamuta, head of the Central Bank's Service for Consumer Protection and Financial Services. His words are quoted by TASS.

As he clarified, such dynamics may be due to the desire of creditors "to have time to earn something on the expiration of the old law [on consumer lending]." At the same time, an increase in the number of complaints and the average value of the volume of imposing additional services when applying for loans was observed in Russia not only in 2023, but also in 2022.

The Central Bank recorded the largest number of such complaints in 2023 in March and October. In these months, a total of 600 and about 650 such appeals were received from Russians, respectively. In 2022, the most complaints were received in February (almost 600). Mamuta expressed hope that within the framework of the new law on consumer lending, the business model of sales in credit institutions will change. "Some banks have announced that they will time the provision of credit and the offer of additional services to a person," he concluded during a speech at the IX Banking Legal Conference.

Earlier, State Duma deputy Nikolai Arefyev called for helping Russians with loan debts while increasing the financial burden on borrowers. As one of the support measures, he proposed restructuring debts with deferred payments. Another option may be to subsidize interest rates in order to lower them further.