FAS required banks to explain the commission to promoters on preferential mortgages

“In connection with information in the media and complaints received by the department of citizens and developers about the actions of banks, FAS Russia sent requests to credit institutions to analyze the validity of decisions on the establishment of such a commission” , says a message on the service’s website.

Applications were sent to Sberbank, VTB, Sovcombank, Alfa Bank, FC Otkritie and Promsvyazbank. The day before it was reported that the latter would eliminate commissions for promoters in February. At Promsvyazbank it was 3.5%, much less than at Alfa Bank or Sberbank, experts said.

The service expects credit institutions to justify the introduction of a commission for developers for each mortgage loan granted. If violations are detected, the FAS undertakes to take response measures.

• At the end of last year, the FAS began to receive complaints against large Russian banks for the introduction of a commission for promoters. Therefore, the lender provides a home purchase loan only to banking partners (who pay a commission). Credit organizations began to use this practice after the mechanism for issuing preferential mortgages was tightened.
• In January, several banks – Sberbank, Alfa Bank, VTB and Rosbank – announced that they would provide preferential mortgage loans only if the interest rate was subsidized by the developer. In Sberbank, this commission amounted to 7.5% of the concessional loan amount. For family mortgages, the commission reached 8.4%, for IT mortgages – 8.9%.

• The Central Bank criticized the banks’ new scheme to work with developers. The charging of a commission and the fact that the client offers a loan for the purchase of real estate only to banking partners poses risks to the principles of competition, considers the regulator.