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13 february 2024, 09:47
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has begun to receive appeals of consumers of financial services on disputes with non-state pension funds (NPF) on unlawful transfers of pension savings, and the Financial Ombudsman has taken the first decision on such an appeal.
It is to be noted that in 2023 the legislation was amended on the Financial Ombudsman on the rights of consumers of financial services. Now the FOS shall consider disputes of consumers with non-state pension funds on illegal transfers of pension savings. The amendments to the legislation came into force on 11.12.2023.
According to Financial Ombudsman Tatyana Savitskaya, as early as in December 2023 the first consumer appeals against unlawful transfers of pension savings were received. On 06.02.2024, the first decision on such an appeal was made, pension savings unlawfully transferred to a non-state pension fund were returned to the Social Fund of Russia, said Tatyana Savitskaya, who passed the judgement.
“A resident of the Moscow region reported in the appeal that she had been surprised to learn from the pension account statement received through the Unified Portal of State and Municipal Services in 2023 that since 2018 her pension savings had ended up, instead of the Social Fund of Russia, in a non-state pension fund with which she had not entered into any agreement, and her signature in the agreement was fake,” Tatyana Savitskaya clarified.
The Financial Ombudsman appointed a handwriting expert examination of the consumer’s signatures in the agreement and in the application to change the insurer. The forensic examination concluded that the signatures had not been made by the consumer.
Based on the conclusion of the expert examination, the Financial Ombudsman satisfied the consumer’s claim for the return of the consumer’s pension savings to the Social Fund of Russia by the non-state pension fund.
The pension savings are to be returned taking into account the results of investment, in addition the non-state pension fund is to transfer to the Social Fund of Russia the interest for the use of the consumer’s pension savings, as well as return the deductions to its income from the investment of pension savings. In turn, the Social Fund of Russia will reinstate in the consumer’s individual personal account the amount of investment income that was previously withdrawn by the consumer during the unlawful change of insurer.
For a consumer’s consideration:
“Should you become aware that your pension savings have ended up in a non-state pension fund with which you did not enter into an agreement, and you wish to return these savings to the previous insurer of compulsory pension insurance (the Social Fund of Russia, or a non-state pension fund), you must first apply for restoration of the violated right (a claim) to the current non-state pension fund, and in case it refuses to sign an agreement on voluntary return of your pension savings, you have to send an appeal to the Financial Ombudsman,” Tatyana Savitskaya reminded.
Samples of all documents required for this purpose and answers to all relevant questions are available on the FOS website (https://finombudsman.ru/).
