Installment plan for the smallest

The "credit holidays" declared by the authorities were useless for most borrowers

Last Friday, Vladimir Putin signed a decree on “credit holidays” for citizens affected by quarantine measures in the economy. This week, the government published the maximum amount of loans by which individuals and representatives of small and medium -sized businesses will be able to apply for a delay of up to six months. The maximum threshold for a mortgage amounted to 1.5 million rubles. For consumer loans, the upper bar is 250 thousand rubles, for car loans - 600 thousand rubles. The threshold value for debt on credit cards is 100 thousand rubles.

Citizens whose monthly income has been reduced by more than 30 %will be able to get a deferral. Individual entrepreneurs who have taken unsecured loans in the amount of up to 300 thousand rubles will also be able to apply for a vacation. The established rules are applicable to loans from microfinance organizations.

However, a very limited circle of persons will be able to take advantage of the extensions.

Having established a low bar of the loan amount, the government excluded a significant part of the inhabitants of large cities from the list, including Moscow and St. Petersburg.

- Measures are mostly oriented towards borrowers from regions and Muscovites with low income, who took small loans and may encounter difficulties in their maintenance. People who took large loans will not be covered, at least for now, ”says Stanislav Volkov, managing director of the National Credit Ratings methodological group.

For example, the average mortgage check in Moscow is 4.4 million rubles, which is several times higher than the government bar, and the amount of 600 thousand rubles for car loans is primarily focused on not very expensive cars of cars - worth up to a million rubles, Volkov points out.

- For many Muscovites, the threshold for a mortgage of one and a half million rubles means that, even having lost their jobs, they will not be able to get a credit vacation. They can receive unemployment benefits about 20 thousand rubles, but what does this mean if they paid only for a mortgage of 50 or even 100 thousand a month? And they still need to feed the families, ”the head of the analytical department of the BCF Bank Maxim Osadchiy is indignant.

All this will lead to the fact that people will simply be left without a roof over their heads: banks will have to take and sell property of borrowers due to the lack of payments, the expert is sure.

As a result, the risks of a serious mortgage crisis and the crisis of non -payments are extremely great.

Another question is who will pay for a banquet. Now the obligations to ensure the support of the population’s support are transferred to banks and depositors, but in fact the state should pay from the funds of the state welfare fund, says Osadchiy.

Even to those who formally fall into the preferential categories, to prove a decrease in their income by 30 % may not be so easy, says Valery Zinchenko, senior partner of the PEN & Paper lawyer college. The bank may require confirmation of a decrease in income. To do this, the client may request the necessary documents or contact the Federal Tax Service, the Pension Fund, the FSS or the Federal Antimonopoly Service. They have 90 days to provide documents.

- The list of documents is quite simple, but most of them are very difficult to get in a remote way. For working borrowers, this is usually a 2-NDFL certificate, which is issued by the employer.

Of course, if the employer temporarily stopped his activities or transferred employees to distance work, there may be difficulties in a purely organizational nature in obtaining such a document. It is hoped that in three months the epidemiological situation will still improve, and restrictive measures will be mainly removed, ”says Zinchenko.

In case of refusal of the bank, the borrower has the right to apply to the court with a request to amend the loan agreement, the lawyer continues. However, in his opinion, mass illegal refusal to provide a grace period should not be expected. Problems may arise in those who used to receive large unofficial income, but due to pandemia and crisis, they are significantly reduced, Volkov adds.

Despite the fact that the measure of support for borrowers during the Covid-19 pandemic is not mandatory, large banks announced the introduction of a “grace period” even before the government was disposed of. Among them are Sberbank, VTB, Alfa-Bank, Promsvyazbank and Opening.

At the same time, Alfa-Bank decided to limit the issuance of loans, including mortgages, to borrowers working in the most affected by the Pandemia of the Coronavirus sectors of the economy. They also decided to tighten the loan policy at MTS, the bank, Renaissance, Absolute Bank and Opening. In addition, the “opening” and the Rosselkhozbank said that they were ready to provide a deferral for payments for up to three months, and not up to six.

As the Novaya Gazeta was told in the VTB press service, the bank has already begun to accept customer appeals to provide a grace period of payments on loans within the framework of the federal law. So far, more than 700 applications have received borrowers, of which 340 concern mortgage loans, 230 - cash loans, 70 - car loans and more than 60 credit cards. Customers can submit all applications for a deferred loan payment and confirming documents remotely.

The banking sector during the pandemic is unlikely to be among the first victims.

In crises of 2008 and 2014, banks also restructured part of the loans. In the case of force majeure circumstances, banks themselves try to meet customers, says Natalia Orlova’s chief economist of Alfa-Bank.

- Now the Russian banking sector has a liquidity surplus of three to four trillion rubles. Therefore, so far there are no problems with the possible consequences of the crisis. Nevertheless, they will appear in a year or two, when it turns out that most of the restructured loans are irrevocable. Then the banks will have to write them off, ”says Orlova.

- To the State Bank, such as Sberbank and VEB, there will be enough strength, the head of the analytical department of the BCF Bank Maxim Osadchiy agrees. - And if there is not enough own resources, then the state will help. Meanwhile, non -state banks focused on unsecured retail lending, the situation is quite alarming. For the same Tinkoff Bank for 2019, the loan portfolio grew by 63.6 %, the portfolio of unsecured retail loans is now over half of the bank's assets.

Changing the conditions for borrowers should be smooth so that the installment plan began to operate closer to the end of credit holidays, when it is not necessary to pay the entire amount of debts accumulated during the holidays at once, Volkov says. It is also important that by the end of the holidays, citizens' income begins to recover. Otherwise, by this moment the borrower will be even harder to serve the debt.