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12 november 2021, 13:49
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) received 44,878 appeals from consumers of financial services in the third quarter of 2021, which is 8.3% less than the number of appeals received during the same period in 2020 (48,932 appeals), as Chief Financial Ombudsman Yury Voronin said.
«The decrease in the number of appeals did occur even though the scope of the FOS institution has expanded since 2021: it is used now to resolve disputes with banks, non-state pension funds, pawnshops and credit consumer cooperatives. But it is insurance that still accounts for the bulk of appeals, and the main reduction has occurred in respect of appeals under Compulsory Motor Third Party Liability insurance contracts,» Yury Voronin elucidated.
The number of insurance claims decreased by 17% to 40,089 claims in Q3 2021 compared to the same period in 2020 (from 48,316 in Q3 2020) and the share in total claims fell to 89.3% (from 98.8% in Q3 2020).
The main contributor to the decline in the number of insurance disputes was a 23% drop in the number of CMTPL claims, to 30,800 (from 39,976 in Q3 2020). «CMTPL insurance is the most massive type of insurance and the very first segment in which we started settling disputes in out-of-court proceedings. A noteworthy practice has been accumulated: in many cases recently have financial institutions tried not to take a dispute to the FOS, but resolve it within the claim stage,» Yury Voronin explained.
However, in the life and accident and health insurance sector there has been an increase in number of appeals in Q3 2021 compared to the same period of 2020. Thus, during the period under review the number of appeals for these types of insurance reached 6,488 against 5,255 appeals in the third quarter of 2020 (a 19% increase). According to the Chief Financial Ombudsman, the increase in appeals in this area can be attributed to the fact that the law on the refund of insurance premium on early repayment of a loan came into force on 1 September 2020. The amendments apply to contracts concluded after the date of the law entering into force. «Accordingly, more than a year has passed, consumers exercise their rights and contact us in disputable situations. We cannot but say that, in general, the law has created a resonance and encourages citizens to fight more often for their rights,» Yury Voronin added.
The second place by number of appeals to the FOS in Q3 2021 (following the insurance) belongs to appeals against credit institutions, which amounted to 3,694 (8.3% of the total number of applications). As for the microfinance institutions, there were 447 appeals, which is 2.4 times as much as in the same period of the previous year (186 appeals). There were 222 appeals on the activities of credit cooperatives, 15 appeals on the activities of non-state pension funds and no appeals on the activities of pawnshops.
The average amount of consumers’ appeals reduced by 3.5% in Q3 2021 and amounted to 201,207 rubles (in Q3 2020 – 208,399 rubles). In insurance, it amounted to 208,271 rubles, in microfinance to 24,409 rubles, in credit cooperatives to 397,595 rubles, in credit institutions to 120,756 rubles, and in private pension funds to 196,510 rubles.
30,917 decisions in total were taken by the Financial Ombudsman in the 3rd quarter of 2021, based on the results of consideration of the appeals received.
