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- In the final calculation: Russians were written off five times more debts without trial
In the final calculation: Russians were written off five times more debts without trial
In 2024, almost 36,000 out-of—court bankruptcy procedures were completed in Russia - they had debts of 17.4 billion rubles written off, Izvestia found out. This amount is five times more than in 2023. The reason is that the mechanism has been expanded to pensioners and other recipients of social benefits (for example, single mothers). In addition, the procedure itself has been simplified — now people do not need to bring certificates and confirm their position, the Ministry of Energy added. Whether there are risks to the financial system in such a sharp increase is in the Izvestia article.
How to write off debts without trial
The mechanism of out-of-court bankruptcies is becoming more common among Russians. In 2024, almost 36 thousand people wrote off debts without trial for 17.4 billion rubles, the press service of Fedresurs told Izvestia. This amount turned out to be almost 5.5 times higher than in 2023. Then 9.3 thousand people became insolvent — they were forgiven debts of 3.2 billion rubles.
At the same time, more than half of the procedures last year were carried out by people receiving pensions (16 thousand) and social benefits (2.7 thousand).
According to Fedresurs, a total of 85 thousand procedures with a debt amount of almost 40 billion rubles were launched during the period of out-of-court bankruptcy from September 2020 to the end of 2024. Of these, more than half have already been completed — 54 thousand procedures with a debt of 24 billion.
The out-of-court procedure is aimed at targeted assistance to socially vulnerable citizens who are facing financial difficulties, the press service of the Ministry of Economic Development told Izvestia. This mechanism allows only bona fide citizens to get rid of unbearable debts, the ministry said.
In Russia, there are two bankruptcy mechanisms for individuals: out-of-court and judicial. The first scheme is free and runs through the MFC. Since November 2023, people with debts from 25 thousand to 1 million rubles have been admitted to this mechanism (before that it was from 50 thousand to 500 thousand rubles). The second allows citizens to declare themselves insolvent through the court if they have a debt of more than 500 thousand rubles. This procedure is paid for. Citizens can resort to bankruptcy once every five years.
Nowadays, judicial procedure is resorted to more often than non-judicial. In 2024, 432,000 people used the first mechanism, which is a quarter more than last year. But its growth is slowing down. As explained by Alexey Yukhnin, the head of Fedresurs, this is due to the development of a free out-of-court procedure. And also — with the effect of already having a high base.
Izvestia asked credit institutions about how often customers resort to bankruptcy proceedings, but banks are reluctant to share this information. Zenit said that only isolated cases were noted among their clients.
Who can go through the out-of-court bankruptcy procedure
The main reason for the growing popularity of out—of-court bankruptcy is that it has become accessible to different categories of the population, the Ministry's press service explained. They recalled that since November 2023, the mechanism has been expanded to pensioners, families with children and all citizens who have not been able to pay off debts for more than seven years.
The increase in out—of-court bankruptcies year-on-year is a direct consequence of the expansion of the "funnel", that is, the softening of the criteria for debt relief for a new category of citizens, says Elman Mehdiyev, the founder of the Kredchek service. According to him, this gave the increase that everyone is now surprised by.
In addition, since the summer of 2024, the out-of-court bankruptcy procedure itself has become more convenient, the Ministry of Energy noted. Now a citizen may not bring certificates confirming his compliance with the conditions of such a process — this happens automatically through the system of interdepartmental electronic interaction. That is, now this mechanism has been used by those citizens for whom it was problematic to collect documents about their own financial condition in government agencies.
The increase in the number of out—of-court bankruptcies in Russia in recent years is a predicted and expected phenomenon, said Valeria Gerasimenko, Chairman of the Council of the Union of Arbitration Managers of the National Center for Restructuring and Bankruptcy.
The increase in the number of bankrupts under the simplified scheme was also reflected in the expansion of the debt limit — now it ranges from 25 thousand to 1 million rubles (previously — from 50 thousand to 500 thousand), added Polina Gusyatnikova, senior managing partner at PG Partners law firm. It also played a role that people became more aware of the procedure.
At the same time, one should not forget about the disadvantages of an out-of-court debt relief mechanism, the expert emphasized. As a result of the procedure, a citizen will not be able to obtain a new loan in the next five years, as well as hold senior positions in banks and insurance companies for five years, in others for three years.
Is there a risk to the economy from the growth of out-of-court bankruptcies
The system has digested the changes that took effect in 2023-2024, according to Anton Tabakh, chief economist at Expert RA rating agency. However, he estimates that the amounts covered by these bankruptcies are microscopic by the standards of the Russian financial system. For comparison, at the end of 2024, the total volume of loans to Russians exceeded 38 trillion rubles, Izvestia wrote earlier. Therefore, there is no need to talk about significant risks, the expert stated.
Out-of-court bankruptcy has many advantages: reducing the burden on arbitration courts and arbitration managers, a fixed six-month duration of the procedure without the possibility of extension, and minimal costs for the debtor, emphasized Valeria Gerasimenko from the National Center for Restructuring and Bankruptcy.
At the same time, all this can negatively affect the financial system if the popularity of the mechanism attracts citizens who abuse their rights, for example, who initially do not meet the requirements. In this case, the debtor's creditors may apply to the court for bankruptcy, which, on the contrary, will add to the work of the justice authorities, the IFC and other institutions.
According to Elman Mehdiyev, another aspect can now be considered a real risk for financial institutions — a sharp increase in the number of "borrowers". Not only do they create a much larger flow of such applications, but they also often receive amounts from debtors that significantly exceed the loan debt, he said. So it's better to inform people that they can write off debts without trial themselves, without intermediaries.
What will happen to debt cancellation without trial in the future
Izvestia asked the BCI to estimate the number of current debtors potentially subject to the terms of the extrajudicial mechanism. The National Bureau of Credit Histories said that there are no estimates on the number of probable defaults. According to Alexey Volkov, the organization's marketing director, the last few months show that as a result of the Central Bank's harsh policy, the share of borrowers with a debt burden above 50% has begun to decline.
If we take into account that this category carries the greatest risks of insolvency, we can expect the situation to improve. Moreover, the share of "bad" retail loans has not increased in 2024, remaining at the level of 4.6%, and over the past year banks have seriously tightened their approach to assessing potential customers.
According to Elman Mehdiyev, in the future, the growth in the number of out-of—court bankruptcies will not be as explosive as in 2024, because it is now that the market has won back the change in the terms of the procedure.
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