Microcredit is a financial service, an aggressive business or a crime, - T. Mikhailov's comment

The question of the presence of fraud in the very fact of microcredit activity, even with the inclusion of invalid conditions in the agreement, is extremely controversial.

This was stated by the lawyer of Skliarenko, Sydorenko and Partners, Timur Mikhailov, commenting for the publication Zakon i Biznes on the information about the exposure by the Security Service of Ukraine of a “large-scale money extortion scheme”.

The department also reported that one of the leading companies in the online microcredit market illegally counts its clients who could not repay loan obligations on time, fines and a penalty in the amount of more than 300% of the loan amount. And this is a violation of the current legislation, since such charges cannot exceed 50%. Collection companies were involved in "knocking out" these artificially created debts. And they levied money from the borrowers, resorting to pressure, threats of physical violence or destruction of property. These threats could spread not only directly to the client, but also to his family members.

T. Mikhailov spoke out against microcrediting in the form in which it exists now.

“The inclusion of deliberately invalid terms and conditions in loan agreements is unacceptable and should be viewed as unfair business practice,- he said. – In addition, when the advertising of consumer credit indicated unreliable interest rate or other false information about the conditions, this falls under the offense as "dissemination of information that is misleading," according to Article 15-1 of the Law of Ukraine "On Protection from unfair competition".

However, according to the lawyer of Skliarenko, Sydorenko & Partners, the question of the presence of fraud in the very fact of microcrediting activities, even with the inclusion of invalid conditions in the agreement, is highly controversial. “In a certain, formal, interpretation it is possible to justify the presence of corpus delicti. Therefore, companies by misleading are trying to get someone else's property - the borrower's money in a larger amount than they are entitled to, - he explained. - However, most likely, companies by submitting public offers will be able to prove that they are not hiding the terms of the contract, incl. a responsibility. In addition, their activities are primarily aimed at providing financial services. "

Microcredit as a form of business has been on the market for a long time. Financial companies have been engaged in this activity for years on the basis of issued licenses. Moreover, most likely, T. Mikhailov notes, all such companies include in the contract invalid terms of liability (overstated penalty). In this case, the opposition to this activity in the form of opening criminal cases can be directed rather towards the redistribution of this market in favor of its individual operators.

Taking into account the above, the lawyer sees the legitimate work of law enforcement agencies in three directions:

1) focus on combating illegal practices of loan repayment (with inflated interest rates) - threats, violence, blackmail;

2) treat all organizations that provide microcredit services equally;

3) to work out legal mechanisms of interaction with the regulator to direct this microcredit market into a civilized channel, including by revoking licenses from unscrupulous companies.