‘Most claims and complaints we get concern the financial services offered by Home Credit and Finance Bank Ltd. Most often, this is the consumer loan business: some banks, for example, give a loan and make a client open an account that costs pretty much the amount of money you borrow to maintain,’ says Ms E. Bogacheva, the expert of Rospotrebnadzor in Sverdlovsk Region, the consumer rights monitoring agency.

Home Credit and Finance Bank Ltd. was prosecuted for administrative offence for refusing to provide a loan unless a client pays for the opening and maintenance of a bank account. This practice violates Article 16 of the Consumer Rights Protection Act as it makes the rendering of one service depend on the obligatory rendering of another service.

‘Besides, the agreement of Home Credit and Finance Bank Ltd. included a point about the bank’s right to fine the borrower in case they delay the debt payments. This proviso is actually illegal as the Russian Federation Civil Code (Article 811, part 2) says that if the agreement provides for the payment of the debt in a few installments, then if the borrower fails to pay some installment before the deadline, the bank may demand that the whole sum plus the interest be paid in advance. Yet the bank is not entitled to the right of fining the client,’ Ms Bogacheva said.