Central Bank of Russia reports 23.6% rise in Q1 consumer complaints driven by banks and microfinance as insurance complaints drop 44.6%

The Central Bank of Russia published its 2025 Q1 results on complaints from financial consumers and investors, reporting a 23.6% year-on-year increase to almost 95,000 complaints. The rise was driven by more complaints about banks and microfinance organisations (MFOs), while complaints about insurance, professional securities market participants, and non-governmental pension funds (NPFs) fell. Insurance complaints declined by 44.6%, mainly due to changes to the procedure for contesting the bonus-malus coefficient (BMC) in compulsory motor third-party liability insurance, which now allows customers to view their BMC and request recalculation via personal accounts on the National Insurance Information System website. Complaints about banks increased by 36.8% year on year, largely reflecting more complaints about suspensions of remote banking services following the July 2024 requirement for banks to suspend suspicious transactions, with banks confirming fraudulent use in most cases. The share of complaints about MFOs rose by more than 10%, including issues with refunds when rejecting additional services, loans issued without consent, and demands to recalculate debt prompted by social media recommendations; separately, complaints about paid services being touted in lending fell by 42.2% after lenders were required to disclose bundled services and inform borrowers of a 30-day right to refuse them.