Russia cracks down on over 1,000 illegal lenders in 2025
Russian authorities have cracked down on illegal lending over the past year. The Bank of Russia uncovered more than a thousand unlicensed lenders, including 1,118 entities suspected of operating outside legal lending rules, in 2025 alone. Many of these used a network-based approach, opening branches under one brand but registering them to different individual entrepreneurs, making detection harder for regulators. The Bank of Russia also expanded its monitoring tools, using data from Rosreestr and the Federal Bailiff Service to track illegal mortgage lenders, exposing 137 cases of unlawful mortgage lending. Despite the rise in some areas, the number of illicit online lending schemes dropped from 1,111 in 2025 to 694 in 2024. The decline suggests that stricter enforcement may be having an effect. The Bank of Russia's actions have led to a noticeable reduction in certain types of illegal lending, including unlicensed credit operations, by leveraging new data sources and blocking fraudulent online activity. The ongoing efforts highlight the scale of the problem and the measures being taken to address it.
