Mr. Peremyr

Financial Ombudsman Pavel Medvedev - The New Times

* * Mr. Minter. A financial ombudsman appeared in Russia. He will regulate the disputes between customers and banks, and his decisions for financial companies will become mandatory for execution. Bankers entrusted the role of the public reconciler to the State Duma deputy Pavel Medvedev
Pavel Alekseevich, the financial Ombudsman is a new concept for our market. “Simple” the Ombudsman is designed to fight for human rights. Whose rights you will fight for? Also for human rights. Only this person should be a client of a financial organization. And my intervention is implied when there is some kind of conflict or misunderstanding between this person and a bank or, say, a Pytho. My mission is to resolve the contradiction.

Six brave
Suppose you complained to a certain bank client that they take a greater percentage from it than the loan conditions suggested. You contact the bank for clarification. Why do you have to provide them there, and even more so to fulfill your verdict if it is not in favor of the bank? Because the banks themselves voluntarily took the obligation to respond to the appeals of the financial ombudsman and execute its decisions.

How many banks have taken on such obligations? The Association of Russian Banks (ARB) announced my new status on September 3, when six banks were placed under the relevant agreement: Raiffeisenbank, Home Credit, OTP Bank, Giya Mani Bank, Trust and Uniastastrumbank. For my part, it would be incorrectly monitoring this process, but in the ARB they informed me that since then a number of banks have expressed a desire to put their signature under the agreement. I hope that other financial organizations will join this process, for example, share funds and credit cooperatives.

Banks who agreed to your appointment must meal melessly accept any of your verdict? There are some restrictions. Firstly, we agreed that at first the client should contact the bank directly with his question, and if he remains dissatisfied with the result, then he has the right to go to the Ombudsman. Secondly, the dispute should concern an amount not exceeding 300 thousand rubles. Subject to these conditions, I have the right not to ask for a bank, but to make a decision.

Among the banks you named there are no state giants - Sberbank and VTB24. Do they not recognize you as an ombudsman? In any case, I will ask everyone to support me. And the point here is not in my person: it seems to me that if the institution of the financial ombudsman earns, our entire banking system will rise by another step in its development.

The main thing is trust
Probably, customers are only better if they have another influential defender. And why banks are unnecessary troubles, given that the Central Bank, the Antimonopoly Service, Rospotrebnadzor, the court, finally can intervene in their relations with the depositors? I will tell you one story: I at one time for a long 12 years was fought for the fact that the law on mandatory insurance of private deposits was adopted in Russia,

* * The law was adopted in December 2003. According to his 2008, the return of the deposit of an individual to 700 thousand rubles in any bank is guaranteed by the state. Which now works effectively and protects the vast majority of savings in citizens. Many bankers resisted this - because they had to pay extra to the insurance fund. Soon after the law was nevertheless adopted, I accidentally met one banker from Nizhny Novgorod on the street, my active opponent. And suddenly he tells me that the day before he and his comrades-bankers drank for my health. It turns out that their tributary of deposits of individuals has noticeably increased. They conducted a survey and found out that it was thanks to the law on deposits insurance of people who increased confidence in banks. Financial institutions are interested in improving self -confidence - this is the answer to your question. Our banks, of course, are far from perfect. But most modern bankers are not temporary workers who think about how to steal 100 rubles and run away. They are interested in the future of their craft. And without the trust of the population there is no future. Agreeing to the institution of the financial ombudsman, they seem to tell customers: if you are unhappy with something, here is the person you can contact. As he judges, it will be so, and without any judicial and other bureaucratic red tape.

The authorities for human rights and the rights of the child are appointed by the president of the country by his decree. You were nominated by the Ombudsman Public Organization. Why? It would probably be better if the president appointed. But he simply cannot do this - we do not have a law on the financial ombudsman. You can, of course, wait until such a law appears, but where is the guarantee that this process will not drag on for another 12 years? Therefore, if the banks themselves say absolutely voluntarily “we agree to obey you”, in my opinion, it is ridiculous to refuse this additional opportunity to protect the rights of depositors.

When the law is powerless how your work will be organized: where is your office located, in what mode will it accept people? The banks that established the Institute of the Financial Ombudsman agreed to throw them out so that I had a small apparatus. While we do not have a premises, but the Association of Russian banks promised to allocate an office in which we could accept people. This will be done by my assistant on an ongoing basis, of course, in the established hours of reception. Well, I will regularly appear there in my free time from the performance of my deputy duties. We must officially start work on October 1.

Will this activity be paid? My assistants will receive a salary, I will not. Not because I am so noble, but because I, as a deputy, are prohibited by law.

Are you roughly representing a circle of questions that will be addressed to you? I represent it not approximately, but quite clear. As a deputy who has long been occupied by banking legislation, voters are constantly turning to me with requests regarding their relations with banks. Since 1992, I have had a public reception, where we regularly dealt with the problems of deceived investors. See this decoration on the wall? (

Medvedev shows an installation in a frame of three butterflies - a well -known symbol of the MMM financial pyramid. - The New Times. ) This was presented to me by the deceived MMM investors, after we helped them find and return a billion rubles.

If we talk about today's problems, then most appeals in connection with some circumstances that do not allow to pay a loan in a timely manner. The situation is especially painful when it comes to mortgage loan and borrowers risk losing the apartment. There were a lot of such appeals in February-March last year. If the circumstances are good - we contact the banks, please enter the position of the depositor.

"

Most modern bankers -

These are not temporary workers who think only about

how to steal 100 rubles and run away

"

Entering? Here is a specific example for you. We were addressed by a woman waiting for a second child and burdened with mortgage loan. She expected to make several payments at the expense of maternity capital. But the child was born a couple of weeks later than the set deadline, and she did not manage to make money in time. We asked the bank to provide the woman with a delay - and we went to meet us.

Banks generally often meet when you turn to them? In 7–8 cases out of 10. Moreover, refusals with rare exceptions are motivated. For example, when the applicant tells me not the whole truth about his relationship with the bank. There were several annoying failures when the bank agreed to the queen of the borrower, and he suddenly changed his mind and began to demand more. All these stories, as you know, were before I became an ombudsman. Now I have added levers, and I hope that the effectiveness of my appeals will increase.

Have you studied the foreign experience of financial ombudsmen? Yes. But in most states with a developed banking system, the situation differs from ours: there are laws on the financial ombuds or on a similar institute. We are most interesting to German experience: in Germany, a financial conciliator is also a figure that banks voluntarily agree to. But there this institution has existed for more than one decade and has already overgrown with traditions.

Do you hypothetically allow the situation related to the conflict of interests - when you will complain about the bank where your savings are stored? Then, it will probably be difficult for you to make a decision not in favor of this bank ... Do you assume that the bank will not return to me in revenge? My money is in one very large bank and make up such an insignificant share in its resources that this factor will not play any role, no matter what decision I make. So I need to be afraid of another: an unfair decision.

Medvedev Pavel Alekseevich was born in 1940 in Moscow. He graduated from Mehmat (1962) and graduate school (1965) of Moscow State University. Doctor of Economics (1987). In 1990-1993 - People's Deputy of the RSFSR. Since 1993 - a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation of five convocations. The permanent chairman of the banking subcommittee of the State Duma. The author of most laws governing banking in the Russian Federation. Member of the National Banking Council. Married, three children, five grandchildren.