Complaints against banks and insurers decrease, whereas complaints against MFOs become more frequent
In January–March 2026, the Bank of Russia received 102,100 complaints from financial consumers and investors, which is 8.1% more year on year. The increase was mostly due to complaints beyond the competence of the Bank of Russia, whereas the number of complaints within the regulator’s remit edged down by 0.3%.
Complaints against credit institutions declined. The number of complaints about mortgage lending, cyberfraud, and authorised fraud when people are tricked into providing money or confidential information to fraudsters dropped by about 30%, 40.9%, and 43.3%, respectively. The reduction was the result of the antifraud measures implemented by the regulator and banks. Concurrently, compared to 2025 Q1, the number of complaints about refusals to conduct transactions or suspension of remote banking services soared by 45.2%. By contrast, relative to 2025 Q4, their number decreased by 12% in January–March 2026.
The number of complaints about insurance issues declined by almost one-fourth. Thus, the number of complains about life insurance, primarily investment life insurance, declined by 41.5%. People mostly complained when they disagreed about the amount of investment income and when insurers violated the deadlines and procedure for paying insurance compensation or refused to accrue additional investment returns.
The number of complaints against microfinance organisations (MFOs) surged by over 47%. Those were predominantly about refunds for additional services and debt management problems. Specifically, people complained about MFOs failing to provide documents for verifying interest accrued, outstanding debt, or microloan repayment. The rise in such complaints was provoked by the so-called debt relief companies, among other things.
‘We can see abuse by a number of bad faith companies promising their clients to write off their debts without any consequences. However, in reality, they either disappear immediately after having received their fees or provide standard documents that a person could have prepared on one’s own. Such ‘help’ only aggravates the borrowers’ situation in many cases. In order to protect individuals, the Bank of Russia, jointly with financial market participants and bona fide legal companies, is exploring the issues of standardisation and regulation of debt relief companies’ activity. We believe it critical to establish clear and transparent rules in this area that would regulate the work with people who have overdue debts and apply for advice regarding bankruptcy,’ said Mikhail Mamuta, Head of the Service for Consumer Protection and Financial Inclusion of the Bank of Russia.
As for complaints against non-governmental pension funds (NPFs), the number of those caused by disagreement with the transition from the Social Fund of Russia to an NPF or between NPFs dropped by 44.4%. Furthermore, the number of complaints about management of unit investment funds nearly halved.