The transfer of claims for any loans to a third party that does not have a banking license is illegal, according to the plenum of the Supreme Court (SC). If a resolution is adopted containing such a provision, borrowers will be able to challenge in court all sales of debt on loans to collection agencies (CA), as well as all transactions for the purchase of mortgage loans by AHML. The market for the assignment of debts to individuals in the amount of about 1,000 billion rubles will be outlawed, according to the Kommersant newspaper.
In part, this situation arose as an approving reaction of the Armed Forces to the repeated statements of the head of Rospotrebnadzor Gennady Onishchenko, who argued that collectors ruthlessly intimidate debtors, threaten with reprisals over the phone, persecute borrowers, and so on. Of course, borrowers have repeatedly filed complaints about agencies, but the fact is that this is how “gray” collectors work. “Self-respecting agencies do not use such methods” - this is how the heads of the leading CAs defended their position.
The press service of the Supreme Court explains that when amendments are made to the draft resolution, the comments of interested parties can still be taken into account. However, this will only happen if (the quote goes on) "the presented system of argumentation will correspond to the interests of citizens and the norms of existing laws and outweigh the argumentation of the plenum." They also note the following: "The established practice shows that the resolution, as a rule, is adopted within a week after the discussion of its draft."
Experts note that the decision of the plenum will be binding on all courts of general jurisdiction, in which individuals are also suing. With regard to challenging the legality of agreements concluded between banks and collection agencies, borrowers will be able to do this in relation to agreements concluded before the release of the ruling of the Supreme Court under consideration.
However, the collection organizations do not seem to be intimidated by such major changes yet. In a conversation with a rugrad.eu reporter, Andrei Kireyak, deputy head of the Kaliningrad limited liability company BaltAlex Debt Recovery Agency, said that this decision would not affect them in any way. To the question "Why?" Andrey replies that the position of the Supreme Court contradicts both the current legislation and the position of the Supreme Arbitration Court. He also believes that this contradiction will eliminate the review of the issue in the Constitutional Court.
In addition, Kireyak noted that many collection agencies work according to an agency scheme: debts actually remain on the bank's balance sheet, that is, they are not transferred to collectors. At the end of the conversation with the correspondent, Andrei Kireyak summed up: he believes that after the release of the decision, there will be no legal grounds for challenging the transfer of debts to collectors in court.
