The public prosecution authorities of Kurgan Region completed their investigation of OAO VUZ-Bank; the inspection was aimed at checking the bank’s observing consumer lending rights. It was detected that VUZ-Bank violated the existing Consumer Rights Protection Act in that the loan agreements did not contain any data as to the actual amount of annual interest for using the borrowed money.

What is more, it was also revealed that in some instances the bank violated Article 16 of the said Act in that the loan agreements only allowed the borrowing party to pay the loan back early if a corresponding commission was paid to the bank.

As a result, deputy prosecutor of Kurgan Region took legal action against the bank, with charges based on Article 14.8 (part 2) of the Russian Federation Administrative Offense Code (the use of contract terms which infringe upon the consumers’ rights). All the materials relevant to the case were placed with Kurgan Region’s division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog).

After the case had been considered, the prosecutor’s claim was sustained and the bank had to face administrative liability and pay a fine.