OREANDA-NEWS  Credit holidays have been resumed again. The new deadline for applying to banks for their registration is from January 1 to March 31, 2023. The relevant Federal Law was adopted at the end of December and entered into force on January 1, 2023.

Anti-crisis credit holidays for borrowers appeared in 2020 and were regulated by Law No. 106-FZ of April 3, 2020, according to which holidays could be taken until September 30, 2020. The credit vacation mechanism operated to help borrowers who faced financial problems during the pandemic.

In 2022, the same law was amended: in the wording of March 8, 2022, No. 46-FZ, the deadline for applying for credit holidays was set for the period from March 1 to September 30, 2022. The second wave of credit holidays began against the background of sanctions imposed against Russia, which greatly affected the business and financial system of the country.

From January 1 to March 31, 2023, anti-crisis credit holidays can again be issued in accordance with Federal Law No. 519-FZ of December 19, 2022, which amended the original No. 106-FZ of April 3, 2020. The revision of the law occurred exclusively in terms of the terms when the borrower can apply to the lender with a request to suspend the fulfillment of loan obligations. In particular, the term of applying for credit holidays, which was previously limited from March 1 to September 30, 2022, has been extended for the period "from March 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023".

Due to the fact that the law on the resumption of anti-crisis holidays was adopted only at the end of December and entered into force on January 1, and the previous version was valid until September 30, in fact, borrowers could not use credit holidays under 106-FZ from October 1 to December 31, 2022. RBC Investments appealed to the press services of the Government of Russia and the Ministry of Finance with the question whether the law allows to issue credit holidays retroactively to borrowers who were refused in the last three months of 2022, if at that time there were no legal grounds for their registration, but after the fact it turned out that they were. Both departments left this question unanswered.