Overview

• The consumer association vzbv reports that overall complaints about consumer loans rose by nearly 26% in the first half of 2025 compared with a year earlier.
• Complaints about online-distributed loans increased from 273 cases to 476 in the same period, according to vzbv data.
• The most common issue involves contracts concluded without the borrower’s knowledge or explicit consent.
• VZBV leader Ramona Pop warns that replacing signatures with a simple checkbox would make scams easier, while the ministry frames the change as reducing bureaucracy.
• Reported cases include WhatsApp approaches posing as banks seeking upfront fees and fraudsters misusing video-ident procedures to take out loans or open accounts in victims’ names.