‘Our regional division received a large number of complaints regarding bank loans; a great part of these complaints concerned Russian Standard Bank,’ Elena Bogacheva of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) in Sverdlovsk Region announced at a recent press conference.

‘This company is now involved in an administrative suit; we’ve asked the bank for a number of documents in order to analyze the data and support or refute the claim as to their violating consumer rights,’ Ms Bogacheva said.

‘One can name the most common complaints that the borrowers come up with: unscrupulous ways of providing credit card services and payments that end up being considerably larger than those indicated in the initial loan agreement.’