Public complaints to the Bank of Russia pile up
The Report of the Service for Protection of Financial Services Consumers and Minority Shareholders registers an increase in the proportion of public complaints against insurance agents and a decrease in those against participants in corporate relations in 2016 Q1.
Overall, the number of public complaints and appeals to the Service for Protection of Financial Services Consumers and Minority Shareholders increased from 19 thousand in 2015 Q4 to 20 thousand in 2016 Q1.
The proportion of complaints against insurance agents traditionally remains the highest (78%) in the total complaints against non-bank financial institutions, mainly related to the compulsory motor third party liability of vehicle owners (OSAGO). This segment sees an ever growing number of complaints against incorrect bonus-malus indicators (BMI) applied by insurance companies. The reasons for this increase are mainly incorrect entries of insurers’ BMIs in the unified automated database of the Russian Association of Motor Insurers, and also a more careful approach employed by insurers to record BMIs because of high insurance rates on mandatory insurance types. Complaints against incorrect BMI calculation make 63% of the total number of OSAGO-related appeals, and complaints against insurance payment denials – 14%. The number of complaints against refusals to make OSAGO contracts also increased compared with 2015 Q4. Their proportion was 10% in the total number of OSAGO-related appeals.
The proportion of complaints against microfinance companies was 12% in the total number of appeals, and the majority of those concerned debt repayment under microlending contracts. The proportion of complaints against parties to corporate relations contracted from 5 to 4%, the remaining complaints and appeals were about the activity of professional securities market participants, collective investment agents (each of them totalling 2% respectively), and consumer credit cooperatives (1%).
Based on the review of all complaints, in 2016 Q1 the Bank of Russia sent to supervised entities 2.3 thousand communications ordering them to eliminate and(or) prevent violations of the Russian legislation, and issued 1.2 thousand of acts on administrative offenses. The entities held liable by the regulator in administrative offense cases paid 28.508 million rubles in penalties.
In 2016 Q1, the Bank of Russia’s Call Centre received 51.4 thousand calls from individuals (up by 16% on 2015 Q4), the peak (20.1 thousand calls) being registered in March. In 111 instances, the callers took the chance to listen to the information about the European Accident Statement rules provided by the Call Centre.