Consumer protection in creditor-debtor relations

The capitalist financial market is governed by terms and conditions imposed by large banking corporations and institutions. In creditor-debtor relations, the creditor (lender, lessor) is in a dominant economic and legal position at the moment of entering into a credit agreement, which enables him to impose different terms and conditions upon the debtor (borrower, lessee) and introduce unfair contractual clauses. Therefore, the legislator and government institutions have to protect debtors (consumers) as credit beneficiaries from such credit terms and conditions that unfairly aggravate the debtors legal position. In this article, the author analyzes the legal position of subjects of credit relations, with particular reference to the legislative provisions governing the protection of the debtor (consumer) as an economically and legally dependant contracting party. Apart from being significantly affected by financial market reforms and changes in the mortgage legislation, the legal position of debtors (consumers) has been additionally aggravated in Serbian legislation in the past decade. After discussing the creditor-debtor relations, the author focuses on the issue of establishing a balance of interests; the balance of the creditor and the debtor interests may be achieved by enabling the creditor to keep the financial incentive (earnings form the interest rate) and obliging the debtor (credit-user) to provide legal certainty and protection against unfair contractual clauses.