RIGA - Kontora Loan Company of Latvia, in the face of the worst financial crisis in the European Union, is offering unique loans to those who have nothing to offer for collateral. The company will shell out the loan in exchange for a guarantee of their clients' "immortal souls."
The widely publicized company is headed by Viktor Miroshenko, 34. Kontora offers loans from 50-500 lats (700 euros) to residents of Latvia, requiring only a first name and a signature for the contract, no documents necessary.
Kontora, founded two months ago, does not use debt collectors to collect on those who have borrowed money 's the company considers the threat of soullessness is enough.
"If they don't give it back, what can you do? They won't have a soul, that's all," Miroshenko told Reuters.
The company offers loans at extremely high interest rates 's more than 350 percent per year. Kontora provides clients with short term loans, the interest of which is 1 percent per day beginning three days from the time the client took out the loan.
Miroshenko said that over the last two months, approximately 200 people have taken out loans.
Despite the secrecy of the location 's clients have to e-mail the company to request an amount and are then invited to the office 's the company has yet to receive any complaints, said Sanita Gertmane, agent of the Consumer Rights Protection Center in Latvia (PTAC).
"Of course from a humanistic standpoint, it is more than strange," said Gertmane.
HOLY WRATH
The idea of soul collateral has drawn harsh responses from the local clergy in Catholic, Lutheran and Orthodox sects 's the three most popular religions in the country 's which criticized the company for using fear to force people to pay their loans.
"We do not know what the lenders' motives for requiring such kind of collateral are. Maybe they are absolutely cynical financiers, who use people's fear of losing their souls as the best way to secure their profits," the three churches said in a joint statement.
"Maybe there are religious motives behind this 's Satanism, occultism or something like that 's intended to ruin people's souls, making use of their desperate condition," the statement said.
The religious leaders warned that such a contract goes against the word of god and even non-religious people should think of the consequences.
"What might seem a weird joke could evolve into horrendous reality to the extent that one can hardly imagine," said the statement.
Church leaders emphasized that the lenders could easily assign the rights to the borrowers' souls to a third party.
As there have been no complaints thus far regarding the inner workings of the process, it seems likely that the company will see some success. So far the most the company has lent at once is 250 lats.
