New financial services on Public Services portal: expert discussion
Borrowers should have an opportunity to apply for mortgage and loan repayment holidays via the Public Services portal. Such a proposal was put forth by the members of the Expert Board for Financial Consumer Protection under the Bank of Russia.
In their opinion, the innovation will make the procedure for filing loan repayment holiday applications more transparent and convenient for people, and will also increase the efficiency of supervision over the protection of borrowers’ rights. According to the Bank of Russia, a key condition for implementing this proposal is to ensure the receipt of supporting documents directly from the relevant information systems, which will eliminate the risk of forgery.
The use of the Public Services portal in other situations was also discussed. For example, the portal may be used to accept applications related to borrowers’ refusal to interact with a lender or a collector regarding the settlement of overdue loans, or to enable a lender to notify a debtor of the assignment of claims to another lender, as well as to file a petition for out-of-court bankruptcy.
The Bank of Russia will consider these and other proposals of the Expert Board. They will also be sent to market participants and relevant executive authorities.