The Supreme Court annulled the decision in favor of Tinkoff on the unjust enrichment of the client in the exchange rate

At the beginning of the crisis, in February-March 2022, some clients of the credit institution used intermediate conversion through the pound sterling.

How the profitable conversion scheme worked

Tinkoff users could, for example, buy dollars for 88 rubles on February 28 by converting to British currency. Furthermore, with direct conversion, 1 dollar was worth 150 rubles. Thus, some customers bought dollars for 88 rubles and the next day sold them for 105 rubles. This allowed us to obtain a 20% profit.

The history of the dispute between Tinkoff and his client Ilya Filimonov

• In September 2022, the Odintsovo Municipal Court made a decision according to which the credit institution had to return the canceled 68.8 thousand euros to Filimonov and the bank was also obliged to compensate the client in the amount of 10 thousand rubles. In addition, Tinkoff was fined 2 million rubles.
• The bank did not agree with the decision and filed an appeal, which ended in favor of the organization: the judicial panel of civil cases of the Moscow Regional Court overturned the first instance decision. To justify the decision, the court referred to art. 1102 Civil Code.
• The First Court of Cassation confirmed this decision, pointing out “the abuse of the client’s rights when carrying out currency conversion transactions and the legality of the bank’s actions to repay the unjust enrichment.” Justifying this verdict, the court of cassation indicated that Tinkoff Bank set an erroneous exchange rate on February 27, as well as on March 1 and 11, 2022.

The day before, on March 12, 2024, the Supreme Court annulled the decision of the two previous instances. As a basis, the court referred to art. 390.14 and 390.16 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

During the meeting, the panel took into account the plaintiff’s arguments about violations of the law by the courts. In particular, the appeal court did not give any reason to argue that Tinkoff’s client abused his right when carrying out transactions. Furthermore, the court did not explain how the customer should have understood that the exchange rate had been set by the bank in error.

In addition, blocking funds in an account is carried out only by court decision.

Tinkoff’s position

The bank’s lawyers stressed that the transactions carried out on March 1 and 11 were intended to purchase foreign currency with subsequent conversion to the ruble.

A representative of the organization insisted that it was “unacceptable” to buy and sell foreign currency within the same bank. However, the judge responded that the bank itself acts in exactly the same way: it buys currency at one price and sells it at another.