Cooling-off period of 4 to 48 hours to be set for loans and microloans
Loans or microloans of ₽50,000—₽200,000 will be granted only four hours after an agreement is concluded. If the loan/microloan amount exceeds this threshold, the money will be transferred no earlier than 48 after the entry into the agreement. The law establishing the cooling-off period was adopted by the State Duma. The provision concerning the cooling-off period comes into force on 1 September 2025.
No cooling-off period will be set for loans and microloans below ₽50,000, as well as mortgage and education loans, car loans (provided that the money is credited directly to the car dealer’s account), and refinancing loans unless the refinancing results in an increase in the loan amount. Individuals will be able to buy goods/services on credit without the cooling-off period only if they personally visit the store or organisation. The cooling-off period will not apply to loans and microloans if the obligation under the agreement is undertaken by several co-borrowers or if the borrower has sureties.
The Bank of Russia will be able to change the parameters of the cooling-off period based on the results of the analysis of the efficacy of a credit institution’s anti-fraud measures. For example, it may reduce the cooling-off period for good-faith banks whose operations have been in line with the regulators’ criteria (to be developed later) for at least two quarters. Bad-faith market participants will be subject to financial penalties. When a loan or a microloan is granted in violation of anti-fraud regulations and when a criminal case is initiated on the grounds of money theft, the creditor will not be able to demand performance of obligations by the borrower, charge interest, or transfer the debt to collectors.
In accordance with the Bank of Russia’s proposal, the law contains a provision that banks will not be allowed to provide electronic means of payment, including bank cards, to persons from the regulator’s database on actual and attempted fraudulent transactions. Their valid payment cards will be subject to a limit of ₽100,000 per month for money transfers to other persons. This limit will apply to individuals whose data are included in the database and whose payment cards were not blocked by the bank. According to the law in force, banks are obliged to disable the online banking option for such customers and block their payment cards only if the law enforcement authorities notify banks of the fraudulent transaction performed by the latter. Furthermore, banks are no longer allowed to credit amounts exceeding ₽50,000 to tokenised (virtual) cards within 48 hours from when such cards are issued. Currently, malefactors are extensively using digital cards to deceive people.
Banks and microfinance organisations (MFOs) will have to request Taxpayer Identification Numbers from borrowers and verify them in government information systems, in particular the database of the Federal Tax Service of Russia. This will be an additional source of borrowers’ identification and will speed up interaction with credit history bureaus. MFOs will credit money to accounts only if the data on the borrower and the payee coincide. If an individual is included in the Bank of Russia’s database, MFOs will have to refuse to conclude a loan/microloan agreement with him/her. To this effect, MFOs will be granted access to the regulator’s database from 1 March 2026.
The information exchange between creditors and credit history bureaus will become practically as fast as online interaction. This will also help avoid cases when an individual is manipulated by fraudsters into taking out several loans simultaneously from different banks and MFOs within a short period of time. This provision comes into force on 31 December 2026.