Financial Support Centre (Viva Money)

Financial Support Center LLC - operates in the microloan market. Organized in 2011.

2023: Prolonged IT failure

The Viva Money service (Financial Support Center) has been trying to fix a major IT failure in its systems for a week. The company first announced the failure on November 17, 2023.

As of November 24, 2023, one of the largest microfinance organizations in Russia was able to restore the possibility of online payment of a loan through a website or details. The personal account and call center still do not work.

Viva Money has been trying to fix a major IT glitch for a week

According to Kommersant, Viva Money promised customers not to charge them penalties and penalties for the period of the failure. In addition, information about the "delay" in paying debt will not be received by the credit bureau. There is no system for solving problems of this kind, so the company promises to deal with each case "on an individual basis."

According to the CFP, the company has allocated all its resources to resolve the problem as soon as possible. According to the service's plans, in the near future customers will be able to receive information online about the size and structure of the debt, restructure the debt, and will also be able to repay the debt ahead of schedule.

Alla Khrapunova, an expert on the For the Rights of Borrowers project, notes that according to the basic standard for the protection of the rights and interests of recipients of financial services for microfinance organizations, the site of a microfinance organization may not work for no more than four hours a month, therefore, clients could in any case refuse to pay penalties for this period. Oleg Sukhanov, lawyer of the Moscow Bar Association, agrees with her:

When a breach of the terms of a loan agreement arises from force majeure circumstances or arising out of the actions or omissions of the lender itself, the application of penalties as a general rule is not allowed

Information security experts note that the cause of the failure is not fully known. It could be a hacker attack or the human factor. The long period of restoration of the service is caused, apparently, by the lack of backup instances of systems.^[1]

2022

IFC Financial Support Center acquired Loan Online

At the end of November 2022, it became known about the merger of large microfinance companies in Russia: IFC Financial Support Center bought Loan Online. The deal is closed, its value has not been disclosed. Read more here.

Murder of an employee

In July 2022, in Moscow, an unknown person went to the microloan office of the Viva Money MFO and shot a 51-year-old employee in the forehead.

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