as before the crisis. In July, the average amount of debt payment was 5.3 thousand rubles, which is 1.8% higher than in March and only 5.3% less than in February, according to statistics from the National Association of Professional Collection Agencies (NAPCA, its calculations are at RBC). We are talking about debts that debt collectors collect by working with banks under the agency-based services.

The crisis phenomena very quickly affected the solvency of clients, said Elman Mekhtiev, the President of NAPCA: “In March, the decrease [in payment compared to the previous month] was 7%, in April — 27%, in may — 3%. In June, an increase of 23% was recorded, and in July, the average payment increased by 16%.” Not only large debt collection agencies, but also banks recorded improvements in the payment discipline of debtors, and ultimately in debt collection.

How much debt collectors collect

According to NAPCA, in 2019, banks transferred debt collectors under the agency-based service agreement in the amount of 545 billion rubles. The average amount of debt in this segment was estimated at 68.3 thousand rubles. During the five months of 2020, creditors have transferred debt recovers debts in the amount of 253 billion rubles. The number of debts transferred to debt collectors increased by 1.4% compared to the same period last year, and the volume of cession (sale of debt) due to the pandemic decreased by 35%.

How Russians repay their debts after the pandemic

July’s indicators are similar to last year’s and even slightly exceed them, said Roman Volosnikov, the General Director of the National Recovery Service: “Now we see that the absolute amount of fees is even higher than in February: since mid-March, the volume of transfers of more recent debts has significantly increased due to mass delinquency of borrowers, but debtors have tried to resume payments on them as soon as possible.”

The collection of debts for agency-based portfolios is approaching the pre-crisis period, noted Fedor Vachata, the CEO of M.B.A. Finance. “If we take the volume of debts collected in February for 100% (pre-crisis month), the volume of debts collected in June and July is approximately 85%,” he estimated.

Pavel Mikhmel, the Director of the First Collection Bureau, notes that the situation with payments began to improve in May-June. The full recovery of indicators to the level of last year, according to his calculations, will occur by the end of September.

The volume of debts collected in June and July returned to the level of February, said Elena Dorofeeva, the Head of the Remote Debt Collection Department of ROSBANK. The operating indicators — PTP and KPP (promise to pay and kept promise to pay) – also rose to the previous levels, she said. VTB and Rosselkhozbank observed an increase in the efficiency in debt collection at early stages, their representatives reported. Sberbank declined to comment. The other major banks did not respond to RBC’s requests.

What has affected the payment discipline of debtors

Increasing the effectiveness of debt collection is associated with the removal of sanitary restrictions and the restoration of the usual working rhythm of the population, Dorofeeva believes. “Debtors who previously could not make payments on their debts for any objective reasons (loss of work, earnings or illness) are now ready to resume payment,” Mr. Vachata notes. He also recalls the high level of uncertainty at the peak of the crisis, which affected customer plans. “Some people stopped paying – someone thought about the need to save the funds that were still left, someone hoped that they would not have to pay their debts. There are a lot of different nuances,” — said the interlocutor of RBC.

Debt collectors also noted the impact of continuing sanitary restrictions on consumer behavior of borrowers. “The majority of debtors spend their vacations at home this year, as a result, their spendings have decreased, and they have sent free amounts to repay their debts,” Volosnikov believes. While borders are closed, the Russians are willing to resolve problems with the backlog of obligations, explained Mr. Vachata.

Another change in the debtors’ behavior is their willingness to interact with debt collectors, emphasizes Mikhmel. “Level of contact (percentage of clients responding to debt collectors. – RBC) of customers in April was about 38%, which is higher than in March 2020 and April 2019. This indicates the desire of customers to pay off their debts and a good response to anti-crisis offers from debt collection agencies,” he said.

A certain effect was given by the resumption of the working regime of courts and departments of the Federal Bailiff Service, according to a representative of the Rosselkhozbank. The Bank also recorded an increase in the level of contact and fulfillment of debtors’ promises.

Could debtors rely on a vacation from debt collectors

In the spring, the Bank of Russia recommended banks and other creditors to ease debt collection procedures, in particular, not to forcibly evict debtors from mortgaged apartments and houses until September 30. Creditors and debt collectors were also advised not to hold face-to-face meetings with debtors while the isolation regime is in effect in the regions.

Professional debt collectors were not mentioned in the law on credit vacations (106-FZ), which was adopted this spring to support Russian borrowers. However, debt collectors independently organized the work to settle the clients’ debts, NAPCA reported: if debt collector worked with a debtor under the agency-based service agreement, he had to receive an information about approved deferrals on payments from a lender; if debt recoverer worked with the previously purchased debt (under the cession agreement), he could offer an individual terms for debt repayment. NAPCA estimates that up to 40% of clients of debt collection agencies have used various assistance programs.