The All-Ukrainian information campaign for the protection of the rights of consumers of financial services "Know your rights: loans", conducted by the National Bank of Ukraine, was launched.
It will be a continuation of the first such campaign, which the National Bank conducted in 2021, and will continue in July-October 2022 in all regions of Ukraine.
The key task and goal of the campaign is to protect borrowers' rights and improve consumer knowledge about credit services.
An important direction of the campaign will be clarification of the following issues to the population:
- what to pay attention to when applying for a loan,
- what are the credit holidays and the restructuring,
- what are their terms and procedure of registration.
Also, the National Bank, together with its partners, will explain how to check credit history and what to do in the case of breaking of the requirements for ethical behavior by a creditor or collector when interacting with a consumer.
Improving knowledge and skills in the field of credit services will help Ukrainians to understand better their rights as borrowers and make informed financial decisions.
"We are sure that informed consumers of credit services are more protected from financial risks. They understand better the financial services, make informed financial decisions and can manage their money more judiciously. As a result, their financial situation will improve, which will contribute to the growth of the well-being of our country. That is why it is important for the National Bank to make consumers aware of the conditions of providing credit services," commented Yaroslav Matuzka, Deputy Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine.
He added that during the war, lending has its own characteristics. On the one hand, the banks' appetite for risk decreased, on the other hand, the population's credit demand decreased. In order to restore retail lending, which contributes to increased consumption and, accordingly, to the development of the economy, it is necessary for consumers of credit services to be clearly aware of their rights and obligations to a financial institution and to be able to service loans even in the event of unforeseen situations.
"Consumers' appeals to the regulator regarding legal relations under credit agreements, as well as regarding the unethical behavior of individuals during the collection of overdue debts, constitute the lion's share of complaints against banks and non-bank financial institutions. Consumer lending, in its essence, carries increased risks precisely for the consumer, who often does not understand the full value of the loan and its responsibility under the contract. That is why we pay special attention to this direction. Adoption and improvement of existing regulatory acts aimed at protecting consumer rights, as well as close supervision of the activities of credit market participants, make it possible to prevent violations and normalize processes, but there is still a lot of work ahead," said Olga Lobaichuk, head of the Office for the Protection of the Rights of Consumers of Financial Services of the NBU.
According to her, consumers should always make responsible decisions regarding the conclusion of a credit agreement, and creditors should transparently and qualitatively convey information about the full cost and terms of the service.
Alliance Bank will support the NBU campaign throughout the entire implementation period. Our primary task is to inform the bank's customers and promote the dissemination of information.
"Since the beginning of the war, one of the focuses of working with our clients has been the urgent processing of credit holidays. Under today's conditions, this decision became a significant support and enabled us to find out the real information requests of our customers. During these 5 months, we provided all possible information support on financial literacy based on the principle of transparency and openness. We consider the "credit literacy" training initiative to be necessary in real conditions and plan to support it through all channels of communication with the client," said Yuliya Frolova, Chairman of the Board of Alliance Bank.
As part of the campaign, the National Bank launches a special web page (landing) "Know your rights: loans" with detailed information about credit services.
The campaign is supported by international partners - the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in partnership with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the Fund for Effective Governance of the Government of Great Britain in Ukraine, as well as the European Union technical assistance project "Strengthening Regulation and Supervision of Non-Bank Financial market" (EU-FINREG).
