May 23, 2026

Debt is Dangerous


Debt is Dangerous

Russia's debt collection industry has undergone explosive growth over the past five years, with the number of agencies nearly doubling and top earners posting revenues that dwarf the output of many midsize businesses. According to data from SPARK-Interfax reviewed by Verstka, the number of collection organizations in Russia has risen 168% over the past five years – from 446 in 2020 to 750 by 2025, with the Federal Bailiff Service's official registry listing 670 active agencies.

Three firms reported revenues above R10 billion in 2025: First Client Bureau led with R22.5 billion, followed by ID Collect at R13.4 billion and Phoenix — owned by T-Bank — at nearly R13 billion. In the first nine months of 2025 alone, creditors referred R1.2 trillion in debt to collectors, a 57.6 percent increase over the same period the prior year.

The industry's growth has outpaced regulatory efforts to contain it. Russia's Federal Bailiff Service recorded more than 33,000 complaints against collectors in 2025, a record, of which nearly 10,708 were found to have merit. Courts have imposed fines on agencies and the banks that employ them, but awards are frequently minimal — one Yaroslavl resident received just R5,000 in compensation for sustained robocall harassment, and a Penza man who had endured 13 years of threats was awarded only R20,000 of the 5 million he sought.

Reporting by Verstka, including testimony from a former collector, reveals an industry that regularly operates in legal gray zones or beyond them: automated night-call bots, fake police summonses, social media surveillance of debtors' relatives, and veiled threats. Collectors have called soldiers at the front lines, prompted at least one debtor to consider suicide, and driven others to theft.

Despite a 2025 law granting bailiffs new tools to detect violations, and the March 2026 addition of a public complaint portal on Gosuslugi, lawyer and bankruptcy specialist Valeria told Verstka that regulatory pressure produces only temporary results: "After the first court case — almost immediately, there is silence and peace."

Faced with few effective legal remedies, debtors have increasingly turned to personal bankruptcy. Some 568,000 Russians were declared bankrupt in 2025, up 32 percent from 2024, with the service now advertised aggressively on social media. Participants in the war in Ukraine have also gained the right to discharge debts, though courts have had to intervene in cases where agencies continued collection efforts despite the law. Of the 670 agencies currently in the FSSP registry, 124 are flagged for liquidation — a status Verstka found to be largely unenforced.

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