The local division of the Federal Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-Being Agency (aka Rospotrebnadzor) filed an administrative suit against Russian Standard Bank that is now charged with failing to produce data and using terms of agreements that infringe upon the consumers’ rights, says Rospotrebnadzor’s Consumer Rights Protection Director Natalia Afanasieva.

‘It’s a bit difficult to institute legal proceedings against a bank. They normally refer to bank secrecy, so getting the records one needs for analysis is virtually impossible. So far, we’ve only been considering cases connected with the citizens’ complaints and inquiries. Rospotrebnadzor is conducting investigations in compliance with the consumer rights law,’ Ms Afanasieva explains.

Rospotrebnadzor received four complaints regarding the bank this month. ‘All the complaints have to do with violation of consumer rights in the field of consumer lending,’ says Elena Bogacheva of Rospotrebnadzor.

The local Rospotrebnadzor and Yekaterinburg Consumer Rights Committee have spoken about the unscrupulous ways of informing a client about the terms of credit upon a number of occasions.

‘Quite remarkably, the violations related to hidden loan commissions we saw at Home Credit and Finance Bank Ltd. differ from those revealed at Russian Standard Bank. The banks are capable of adjusting to the new circumstances very rapidly and can change their terms of credit taking advantage of all the legal loopholes,’ Ms Afanasieva notes.

‘So far, we have sent a query to Russian Standard Bank demanding that the bank produces all the papers we need. Then, our experts are going to analyze them in all the detail; only then will we be able to speak of specific offenses,’ she observes.