Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Central Bank of Russia
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Fines can amount to up to 1% of equity and no less than 1 million rubles. This high threshold is imposed on malicious violators of consumer rights—if the credit institution fails to comply with the Bank of Russia's order to correct the violation and continues to engage in unfair practices.
Law on increasing fines The State Duma adopted legislation today against banks for violating the rights of financial services consumers.
Thus, if a bank violates the law for the first time, the regulator will issue a recommendation to rectify it. If the violation is repeated, the credit institution will receive an order and pay a fine of up to 0.1% of its equity. However, if the order is not properly responded to, the fine may be increased to 1% of its equity.
"The Bank of Russia has repeatedly identified gross and systematic violations of consumer rights by certain market participants. It was easier for them to pay fines because they gained significantly more from unfair practices—their profits amounted to hundreds of millions of rubles. Therefore, we proposed an approach that would make violations economically unprofitable. We hope that the understanding that a violation will be followed by a significant penalty, exceeding the unfair gain, will deter the use of bad practices. This is precisely what the regulator strives for: we need not punishments, but the absence of violations of citizens' rights," noted Mikhail Mamuta, Head of the Service for Consumer Protection and Financial Inclusion.
The regulator will decide on the fine amount based on the number of transactions in which consumer rights were violated, the extent of damage caused to them, and the bank's unfair profits. Increased penalties apply for the most toxic and unacceptable financial market practices, such as pushing additional services when issuing loans, unjustified denials of payment holidays, and others.
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