President Vladimir Putin directed the development of a single, streamlined process for pre-trial dispute resolution between citizens and lenders over loan debts. The directive appeared in a formal presidential instruction released on the Kremlin’s official channels. The aim is to create a unified framework that simplifies how debt disagreements are handled before any court action, ensuring consistency across financial institutions and regulatory bodies.
The directive calls on the government and the Central Bank to work together to modify current Russian law by May 1, 2024. The goal is to establish a standardized, mandatory pre-trial procedure for resolving disputes between creditors and borrowers, drawing on the lessons learned from the Bank of Russia’s comprehensive settlement standards. This approach is meant to provide a clearer path for households facing debt issues and to clarify the responsibilities of both lenders and borrowers in the negotiation process.
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Elvira Nabiullina, the head of the Central Bank, were named to oversee the implementation of the decision. Their task is to coordinate legislative changes, align regulatory practices with the new procedure, and ensure the approach is practical for financial institutions while protecting consumer rights. The appointment signals a high level of political and regulatory emphasis on debt resolution and consumer finance practices in the country.
During January through June, the Central Bank identified 137 organizations in the Moscow region that were operating as unregistered lenders, offering loans at extremely high rates and employing questionable recovery tactics. The figure marks a 44 percent rise from the previous year’s comparable period. Bank leadership emphasized the need to crack down on these illegal lenders and to educate the public about the most common scam tactics used by these players. In this context, the bank also referenced its prior work on a standardized approach to assisting citizens who owe money across multiple banks, highlighting ongoing efforts to curb predatory lending practices while improving accessibility to legitimate credit options across the financial system.