Eight "shops" for fast loans lost their license, and many were fined

Photo: Free Press / Dragan Mitreski

Last year there were drastic changes to the regulation, almost every fourth financial company failed to adapt

In the first half of the year, eight out of a total of 35 financial companies lost their license to operate. In the same period, four fines (criminal payment orders) were imposed on two financial companies, one measure – a temporary work ban for 15 days on one financial company and 16 orders with a deadline for compliance.
This is the result of the inspection controls that are under the competence of the Ministry.

- The revoked work permits of eight financial companies are mainly due to non-compliance with the new provisions of the Law on Financial Companies adopted in 2023. The measures - Orders are mainly due to non-compliance with the legal deadlines for submitting appropriate reports to the Ministry of Finance. The fines are mainly due to non-compliance with the provisions of the Law on Financial Companies - the Ministry of Finance stated to "Sloboden Pechat".

After a series of complaints from citizens, reports to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as remarks from the Ombudsman, there were significant changes in the regulation. There were also changes due to the imposed need to tighten the conditions for establishing a financial company.

From July 1, 2023, it is not possible to conclude a consumer loan agreement if the costs that are not included in the annual rate of total costs exceed 60% of the amount of the approved loan, the possibility of taking a loan to close a previously due loan in the same financial company is canceled , and the possibility that commercial companies that possess a permit or a license in accordance with the Law on games of chance and entertainment games can be credit intermediaries of a financial company is abolished.

At the same time, the regulation was strengthened regarding who can hold a license for a financial company, so the founding capital jumped from 100.000 euros to 500.000 euros.

"The amendments to the Law resulted from the need to strengthen the regulatory requirements and standards that financial companies have to meet, the number of which has increased significantly, and the number of users of consumer loans that they issue has also increased," the Ministry of Finance announced when bringing of the Amendments to the law on financial companies.

Last year, the Rulebook was adopted for the protection of citizens from taking out quick loans in their name from third parties. Since then, financial companies can no longer give fast credit online with only a scanned ID card. This turned out to be an abused way, and to make the irony even greater, as "Sloboden Pechat" already wrote, very often the abuses came from children with ID cards from older parents! Unless the money goes to their own account, where there is also an identity verification protocol, there must be a mandatory physical presence, if the requester does not receive the money in an account but wants it to be paid directly to a store.

The Ministry of Finance says that they carry out continuous off-site supervision over the operations of financial companies, as well as on-site supervision in a situation where certain inconsistencies in the operation of a specific financial company have been determined from the off-field supervision (for example, from submitted reports, complaints from citizens, etc. ).
According to the statement about the work done in the same report last year (first half of 2023), they had their hands full: they imposed five fines on two financial companies, one temporary ban on work within 30 days, five financial companies were prohibited from lending through credit intermediary, three financial companies received written warnings and 4 measures were imposed - Orders with a deadline for compliance.

Citizens borrowed 164,6 million euros from non-banking companies

 

According to the data from the National Bank, at the end of the second quarter of the year, the total assets of the financial companies are 192,5 million euros, and the approved credits are 164,6 million euros, according to the data from the National Bank.
The total assets of financial companies increased by 17,3 percent in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period last year. Loans, on the other hand, had a similar growth of 17,1 percent on an annual basis.

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