On February 1, 2024, methods of interaction between debt collectors and debtors will be clarified
From February 1 in Russia come into force amendments, clarifying the methods of interaction between debt collectors and debtors. In particular, they define the very concept of “collector” and regulate the frequency with which their communication with borrowers should occur. Lawyers told Lenta.ru how these changes will affect millions of debtors.
The activities of collectors in Russia are regulated by a special law adopted in 2016. However, as legal practice has shown, there still remained a number of unresolved questions about the interaction of debt collectors with the debtor.
In 2023, Russians have taken a record number of microloans, according to data from the National Bureau of Credit History (NBKI). We are talking about 34.91 million microloans in the amount of up to 30 thousand rubles with a one-time repayment within 30 days.
It is microfinance organizations (MFOs) that most often violate Federal Law No. 230-FZ, which protects the rights of debtors, Dmitry Donskov, general director of the company Dolgam.NET, and arbitration manager, told Lenta.ru. The version of the law that was in force until February 1, 2024 obligated the Federal Bailiff Service to exercise control only over organizations for which the main activity of collecting overdue debts is the collection of overdue debts. However, according to statistics, the main violators of the provisions of Federal Law No. 230-FZ are not collectors, but credit and microfinance organizations, the lawyer explained. The latter commit the most serious violations, related, in particular, to threats to the life and health of citizens.
The law first defined the concept of “collector”
The amendments introduce for the first time a definition of the concepts “collector” and “collection activities”. By law, collectors are commercial organizations that have purchased debt from a bank or microfinance organization. They must be included in the appropriate state register maintained by the FSPP.
The FSSP will create another special list for MFOs and banks. “Now their activities to repay overdue debt will also be controlled by the FSSP,” said lawyer Dmitry Donskov.
Thus, MFOs and banks will be required to submit a notification if they intend to use various methods of personal interaction with debtors (messages, telephone and personal conversations, the use of automated robots). “For violation of legal requirements, restrictions for up to 60 days may be imposed on certain methods of interaction with the debtor. We hope that the changes made will make the process of interaction with the debtor faster, more modern and more civilized,” Donskov noted.
The procedure for communication between collectors and debtors will also change
Communication between collectors and debtors, in accordance with the new standards, is limited to strict time frames: on weekdays – from 8 to 22 o'clock, on weekends and holidays – from 9 to 20 o'clock. The amendments clarify that personal communication can occur no more than once a week; calls – no more than once a day, no more than twice a week and no more than eight times a month; text messages – no more than two per day, four per week and sixteen per month.
The word “calendar” was also added to the law. This means that if collectors call or write to the debtor on Friday and Saturday, then from Monday of the next week the frequency limit will be reset to zero. Until now, in such a situation it was necessary to count seven days. The same applies to face-to-face contacts.
According to lawyer Dmitry Donskov, in direct contact with the debtor, in addition to information about the creditor and the person carrying out the interaction, information about the presence of overdue debt, its size and structure must also be provided. Mikhail Alekseev, a lawyer for the project “For Borrowers’ Rights,” told Lenta.ru about this.
What’s new—which in principle has already happened—is that the collector must introduce himself, indicate either his name or the identification code assigned to him by the collection organization. This is necessary so that the collection organization itself can identify the violator. On the other hand, as a rule, some kind of boorish and illegal methods, similar to extortion, are now mostly dealt with by the black market of collectors
The amendments also introduce the concept of “automated intelligent agent” (AIA), with the help of which the collection agency must conduct a telephone dialogue with the debtor, transmitting to him voice information about the debt. The algorithm provides the ability to switch to a live employee.
“For several years now, a so-called robot has been used to call citizens in debt. Now this story is being formalized into law. In fact, the collections industry has been introducing these robocalls quite aggressively over the past few years. They often closely resemble living people,” noted Mikhail Alekseev in an interview with Lenta.ru.
Lawyer Donskov also pointed to a way to interact with debtors through special programs that “allow us to minimize the impact of the human factor and reduce the risk of violations of current legislation.” He added that in addition to the programs, collectors can send no more than two messages on one debt during a calendar month through State Services, as well as correspondence by courier services.
A citizen may refuse to interact with debt collectors, but not earlier than four months from the date of delay. The debtor also has the right to meet and negotiate with debt collectors only through a lawyer.
For violating the rules, which the law equates to illegal activity, the organization may be excluded from the state register and deprived of the right to work as a collector.
How will the amendments affect debtors and collectors?
The new amendments are unlikely to significantly reduce the number of complaints against debt collectors, says Mikhail Alekseev. According to him, the 230th Federal law on collectors, adopted in 2016, seriously changed this area. Therefore, the amendments are largely clarifying in nature.
The current amendments are rather accumulated additions and innovations that simply further tidy up this area
At the same time, financial analyst Mikhail Belyaev, in a conversation with Lenta.ru, noted that innovations narrow the already limited powers of collectors working in the legal field.
“Collectors are only intermediaries in negotiations between the bank and the borrower. Of course, it is correct that they do not have the right to blackmail, influence relatives and threaten to seize property. At the same time, they must have some rights of influence over debtors. But they are not there. So the efficiency of collectors working in the legal field is absolutely zero,” he believes.
According to Belyaev, high-profile cases of contacts between collectors and debtors “occur outside the boundaries of civilized norms of behavior.” “This falls entirely within the competence of law enforcement agencies, so it is wrong to refer to such cases in order to curtail the rights of law-abiding collectors,” the expert concluded.
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