Central Bank of Russia estimates credit fraud in largest banks at 12.8 bln rubles in 2024

YEKATERINBURG. Feb 20 (Interfax) - Credit fraud in the 23 largest banks in Russia amounted to 12.8 billion rubles last year, according to a presentation by Alexander Danilov, director of the Central Bank of Russia's Banking Regulation and Analytics Department, at a session which took place during the Cybersecurity in Finance forum.

According to the CBR, the total amount of transactions without individual clients' voluntary consent amounted to 26.9 billion rubles in 2024.

According to the CBR's statistics, after signing a credit agreement without a client's consent, fraudsters primarily withdraw money through transfers. In 2024, around 9.1 billion rubles were withdrawn in this way. The amount of credit funds withdrawn through ATMs last year stood at 2.7 billion rubles, while nearly 1 billion rubles were withdrawn via banks' cash desks.

Credit fraud - when victims transfer funds received from the bank as a loan to fraudsters - continues to grow, and the CBR aims to reverse this trend, Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said during the forum on Wednesday.

"Credit anti-fraud is increasing, and we must achieve a turning point here. The law is coming into force gradually. We will assist both banks and microfinance organizations affected by this to prepare for each stage on time, and properly. But the main task, as we see it, is to stop the growth of credit fraud," Nabiullina said.

Credit money withdrawn by fraudsters accounts for around 40% of all funds stolen from citizens, she said. This share was lower in 2023 - around 25%.

In February, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill into law introducing a cooling-off period for consumer lending. The law stipulates that banks and microfinance organizations will not be able to transfer loan funds to borrowers earlier than after four hours if the loan amount ranges from 50,000 to 200,000 rubles, or earlier than 48 hours if the amount exceeds 200,000 rubles. The new requirements will not apply to loans with guarantors, secured car loans when funds are transferred to auto dealers, refinancing without increasing the loan amount, or loans issued through an authorized representative.