FBK GT and Rospotrebnadzor Discuss Financial Consumer Protection Amid Pandemic

FBK Grant Thornton has organised Rospotrebnadzor's fourth international conference dedicated to financial consumer protection amid epidemiological restrictions. The event had a hybrid format with certain speakers joining using video conferencing software.

FBK GT’s advisors presented a report on the status of financial consumer protection in 2019 prepared by Rospotrebnadzor in cooperation with FBK Grant Thornton under the Joint Project of the Russian Federation and the World Bank “Financial Literacy and Financial Education in the Russian Federation”. 

Over 140 people took part in the conference, including officials from Rospotrebnadzor, its regional offices and subordinate authorities, the Bank of Russia, the financial ombudsman, the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic, the UNCTAD, the OECD, the Ministry of Economy of Portugal, non-governmental consumer organisations, as well as financial literacy and consumer protection experts.

Irina Dubinina, a Partner and the Director of Public Sector Advisory at FBK Grant Thornton, said that financial consumer protection is especially important in the new coronavirus reality.

“The majority of countries have essentially the same problems – the loss of jobs, the sharp decline in earnings, troubles with loan repayment, fraud and attempts of theft on the pretext of providing financial aid. Today’s conference has given us an excellent opportunity to discuss Russian and international best practices for financial consumer protection and confirmed a profound interest of the regulators and the expert community in this topic,” Irina Dubinina said.