Bank of Russia receives over 241,000 complaints in first nine months of 2024
Such data are comparable with the 2023 figures. However, the number of complaints about banks’ coercive tied selling declined by 40.6% year-on-year and the number of cases of misselling was down by a factor of 2.7. The Bank of Russia regularly monitors whether banks comply with the legislative requirements aimed at solving the most toxic issues in the financial market.
Contrastingly, the number of complaints against credit institutions as a whole was up by 18.3%. Bank customers wishing to regain access to remote banking services, among others, contributed to the increase. In July, the law on combating fraudulent transfers came into force. It provides for the measures to prevent stolen money from being withdrawn and cashed out. For example, the law obliges banks to disconnect customers from remote banking services if the Bank of Russia receives data on their involvement in fraudulent schemes from law enforcement authorities as part of information exchange and includes them in its database of actual and attempted fraudulent transactions. An individual may challenge the inclusion of his/her details in the database by contacting the relevant bank or the Bank of Russia directly.
The Bank of Russia continues to receive complaints about cyberfraud and malefactors using social engineering techniques and methods.
The number of complaints about compulsory motor third-party liability insurance as well as accident and health insurance dropped by 31.4% and 40.1%, respectively. The total number of complaints about the activities of insurers fell by 27.3%.
The number of complaints against microfinance organisations decreased by 29.8%, including on account of the decline in the number of complaints about coercive tied selling, fraud, and inaccurate information in credit histories.
The new procedure for handling complaints from financial consumers and investors came into force on 1 July 2024. Now, such complaints are submitted to the financial institution against which the complaint was received. Financial institutions independently examined around 50% of 87,800 complaints received by the Bank of Russia over the three months. The Bank of Russia makes sure that they provide high-quality and comprehensive responses and assesses whether financial institutions are ready to solve consumers’ problems.
The regulator publishes the main results of conduct supervision, i.e. information on the restoration of financial consumers’ and investors’ violated rights as well as on the causes of complaints. For example, over the first nine months of 2024, the participants returned money to customers and cancelled liabilities totalling ₽2.2 billion, according to the conduct supervision results.