"For us, the concept of 'never being paid' doesn't exist." An interview with a debt collector.

The non-bank group VSK Group has 200,000 borrowers. However, it's unlikely that many Ukrainians have ever heard of such a financial company. It's probably only familiar to clients of banks or credit companies who haven't repaid their debts. This is because VSK Group is a company that buys portfolios of overdue loans from financial institutions and then tries to recover the debts.

In 2023-2025, VSK Group acquired portfolios with a nominal value of about 2 billion UAH for a total amount of about 50 million UAH. And in 2021, it bought a package of overdue loans from PrivatBank worth 800 million UAH for 18 million UAH.

VSC Group does not use call centers to call debtors and their relatives, says company owner Serhiy Velikdanov. "It's an unproductive method," he believes. The company collects debts through the courts.

Correspondent LIGA.net I spoke with the owner of VSK Group about how the business of buying problem debts works, how much money can be made from it, and why people end up in debt traps. In addition, Serhiy Velikdanov explained what a person who cannot repay a loan should do to avoid falling into a debt trap.