Liability for illegal execution of activities on provision of consumer credit (loans): current status and perspectives for improvement
Authors: Skripchenko N. Yu. 
Published: March 2023

Consumer lending services are among the most demanded in the financial market. The high socio-economic significance of the activities of entities providing consumer loans is increasing in the context of regional imbalances in the implementation of banking services and the focus of credit institutions on clients with a certain income and stable income. Solving the problems of the availability of financial services for citizens living in small settlements, as well as persons who cannot receive funds from credit institutions due to low income, negative credit history, lack of collateral, microcredit organizations increase the purchasing power of the population, maintain the standard of living socially vulnerable citizens, stimulate the country's economy, involving (through investment) low-income strata in economic processes, making tax payments. The increased requirements for professional lenders determined the expansion of the illegal financial services sector, supported by high consumer demand. In order to counteract the illegal activities of illegal creditors and protect the interests of consumers of credit services, the legislator established administrative and criminal liability.

The analysis of the current norms, which provide for liability for illegal activities for the provision of consumer loans (loans), carried out in the course of the study, made it possible to identify technical and legal flaws in the content of Art. 14.56 of the Administrative Code and enshrined in 2021 Art. 171.5 of the Criminal Code.

Having identified the problems arising in the implementation of Art. 14.56 of the Administrative Code in practice, the author proposes to exclude from the disposition of this norm the signs that specify the subject of an administrative offense (legal entity, individual entrepreneur). The inevitability of the liability of illegal usurers will be ensured by changing the approach to determining the moment when illegal professional activities for the provision of consumer loans (Art. 14.56 of the Administrative Code) are concluded from the date of the conclusion of the consumer loan agreement on the day the creditor submits executive documents for organizing the enforcement of court decisions on the collection of the corresponding debt.

Having determined the disposition of Art. 171.5 of the Criminal Code casually, with a triple reference-blanketness, the legislator not only deviated from the rules of legal technique, but also disoriented the law enforcement officer in the content of the criminal law prohibition. The author substantiates the proposals to state Art. 171.5 of the Criminal Code in a new edition, excluding the name of the violated law and detailing the signs of the subject of the crime. As crimi-forming signs, the composition covered by Art. 171.5 of the Criminal Code, it was proposed to determine alternatively: the large size of consumer loans (loans) issued by an illegal lender (over 2 million 250 thousand rubles); administrative punishment of a person under Art. 14.56 of the Administrative Code.