The ombudsman urges more efficient state action targeting the usury phenomenon.

AJB-2981/2012

The ombudsman urges more efficient state action targeting the usury phenomenon.

The rules of the state action against the crime of usury are not applied, which is linked principally to the victims' vulnerable situation. The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights proposes integrated government measures for facilitating the efficiency of law enforcement.

Usurious contract is often the only way for those living in deep poverty to obtain cash or indispensable goods at least temporarily. It is, however, almost impossible to break out of the trap of highly disproportionate agreements without external aid. The fate of the victims of usury is often accompanied by social indifference or even open antipathy intensified often by ethnical prejudices. The ombudsman examined the problem of usury as part of the project "Losers of the Crisis in the captivity of the legal regulations," his proceedings do not, however,  cover the examination of the loan sharks due to his competence but that of the measures of the state organs against usury.

In recent years the state intended to launch an action against usury by the amendment of the civil and criminal legislation. The statistical data have, however, shown that loan sharking activities come into the authorities' view in a very small proportion. Consequently, Máté Szabó proposed the amendment of the legislation so that the authorities could obtain the evidence indispensable for the successful conduct of the criminal procedure. The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights also stressed that the investigating authorities have to make effort to establish relationships based on trust with the local governments, the nationality self-governments, the civil organizations, the local communities and the inhabitants because this is a basic element of the efficiency of the application of the law. Máté Szabó asked for the measure of the National Chief of Police so that the police communication affecting the crime of usury and the application of law should be free of a stigmatizing approach assuming fault on part of the victims.

The ombudsman holds it important to help the victims of usury. Therefore, he proposed that the affected Ministries should initiate the establishment of a crisis management service that would help the victims of the crime of usury in a complex manner. In addition, the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights stressed in his report that loan sharking cannot be eliminated exclusively by legal means. Therefore, he proposed that the legislator should make use of the experience of the micro-credit programs until now in the elaboration of measures assisting social catch-up.

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