MOSCOW, October 5. /TASS/. The Bank of Russia notes an increase in the number of complaints against microfinance organizations (MFOs) based on the results of January – August 2023, the number of complaints for processing loans by scammers increased by 46% compared to the same period in 2022. This follows from the presentation of Elena Nenakhova, Deputy Head of the Service for the Protection of Consumer Rights and Ensuring the Accessibility of Financial Services of the Bank of Russia, who spoke at the microfinance forum “MRF. Autumn 2023.”

According to the presentation, from January to August 2023, the Central Bank received 32.4 thousand complaints about microfinance organizations, which is 15.4% more than the same period last year. The number of complaints in the “fraud” category over the eight months of 2023 increased by 46%, from 3.1 thousand to 4.5 thousand – “as a result of database leaks in 2022 and the departure of foreign software suppliers to counteract fraud,” the presentation says.

Nenakhova, during her speech at the forum, also named among the main drivers for the growth of complaints against microfinance organizations inaccurate information in the credit history, disagreement with the terms of the concluded agreement and recalculation of loans and services.

According to the presented materials, number of complaints regarding disagreement with the terms of the concluded agreement doubled at the end of eight months of 2023 – from 1.3 thousand to 2.6 thousand compared to the same period last year. The share of this category of complaints in the overall structure is 8.1%. Complaints in the category “imposition of additional paid services when concluding a contract” account for 10% of the overall structure, in the category “inaccurate information in credit history” – 11.9%, in “fraud” – 14.1%.