Court rules against Rosbank

1 June 2010 (09:17)

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court rejected OAO AKB Rosbank’s demand that the ruling of Rospotrebnadzor’s Sverdlovsk Region division be declared invalid. Now the regional division of the state consumer rights watchdog stated that Rosbank had to stop violating its customers’ rights when drawing out loan agreements.

The order to this extent was issued after the bank had undergone a document check; this inspection, in its turn, was carried out by Rospotrebnadzor’s experts upon a customer’s complaint.

The agreement which this customer signed with the bank contained a number of terms that actually infringed upon this customer’s legitimate rights. For one, it was obligatory that a loan could only be provided through opening a bank account and issuing a bank card for the borrowing party. This means that Rosbank made one service (opening a bank account) a condition for another service (offering one a loan) and treated these two services as if they were inseparable. Nevertheless, the latter service is clearly quite independent.

Then, the loan agreement also contained a proviso that made it possible to make one-sided changes in it, which is against the law when private individuals are involved in such an agreement.

Finally, the borrowing party had to pay a monthly commission for the administration of their account, even though administration of an account is, in fact, no service at all. Remarkably, the customer could only contest the terms of such an agreement in a particular court of the bank’s choice.

The court looked into the case and stated that Rospotrebnadzor’s orders to bring the terms of the bank’s loan agreements in compliance with the law were both well-grounded and legitimate.


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