This year, Russian bailiffs may cancel physical persons' bad debts in the amount of about 1 trillion rubles to banks, Russia's Federal Bailiffs Service said.
In 2017, bailiffs were able to recover only half of the debts. From January to May, the service registered 4 million executive proceedings to recover bank debts worth more than 2 trillion rubles, the Izvestia newspaper reported.
In 2015, bailiffs executed 4 million productions to collect debt on loans, totalling more than 2 trillion rubles, of which about 1 million were canceled. Last year, bailiffs completed 2 million out of 5 million productions, the total amount of debt reached 3 trillion rubles. For the first five months of this year, the service has registered 4 million executive proceedings, the amount of debts exceeds 2 trillion rubles. 817 thousand of these cases have already been canceled.
A source close to the Federal Bailiffs Service expects that in six months this figure will be equal to 24.48%. By the new year 49% of cases registered in the first five months will be closed, and this is actually 1 trillion of canceled bad debts.
The source drew attention to the fact that recently one of the main reasons for debt cancellation is the impossibility of collecting debts.
According to the National Center for Bankruptcies, the total debt of Russians who can legally declare bankruptcy reached 24.74 billion rubles as of June 1, having risen by 65% compared to the beginning of the year.
The chief economist at PF Capital, Yevgeny Nadorshin, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that debt cancellation in the amount of about 1 trillion rubles should not be a blow to banks. "Most of the losses will be assumed by the largest banks, but this amount should have been fully reserved for a long time ago. In the overwhelming majority of cases, banks understand the solvency of their borrowers and do not expect that it will be possible to return any serious money After the trial," he explained.
The expert added that traditionally going to court is the last thing that banks do, trying to settle problems with borrowers out of court. "If a borrower stops paying, the bank is trying to offer new terms. An bailiffs do not immediately cancel debts, they are trying to collect them for a long time. Banking activities suggest that not everyone will return their debts: initially, a provision is made to cover the risk of non-recovery of payments, so 1 trillion rubles does not incur any losses in the banking system," Yevgeny Nadorshin expressed confidence.
The associate professor of the department of finance, money circulation and credit of RANEPA, Maxim Safonov, in turn, drew attention to the fact that these 1 trillion rubles are such debts that it is impossible to recover. "It is about total hopelessness - those debts that were written off, or those that are not serviced. In general, the amount is significant, especially when compared with the Russian budget," he said.
