OREANDA-NEWS  The Russian authorities have ordered banks to warn citizens about a critical increase in the debt burden. This measure will primarily affect the most heavily indebted customers, RBC reports with reference to the federal law that came into force on January 1, 2024.

According to the innovations, starting this year, lenders will have to calculate the debt burden indicator (PD) for each potential borrower. PD is calculated as the ratio of monthly payments on all customer loans to the total amount of his income. If the indicator turns out to be above 50 percent, then such a client will be warned about high risks, follows from the main provisions of the federal law.


At the same time, there has not yet been a unified practice of informing Russians about the high level of financial burden, according to market participants. Some financial institutions plan to inform the client about his high personal income tax before receiving a loan. Others intend to require individuals to sign such notices, among other loan documents. At the same time, an increased level of debt burden does not automatically entail the rejection of a loan application, experts say. In each specific case, the final decision will depend directly on the policy of the bank itself, to which the potential borrower applied.

Earlier, the Central Bank (CB) reported that by the end of January-October 2023, Russians had accumulated loans for a record amount of 34.8 trillion rubles. In the first ten months, the total debt burden of the population increased by 6 trillion and turned out to be the highest since 2015. At the same time, most of the loans fell on the mortgage segment of the market, which was supported by preferential government programs.