ATMs will work with borrowers at Leto-Bank

For a quick start, VTB Group's light bank, Leto-Bank, intends to fully organize the issuance of cash loans in branches via ATMs. This technology allows you to get noticeable savings by creating branches without cash registers, up to 1 million rubles. at each department. Leto-Bank can afford such a model, since its business does not involve working with deposits, since retail deposits are attracted by the other two banks of the group - VTB 24 and Bank of Moscow.

Leto-Bank (part of the VTB group) chose an unusual model for organizing a network of branches. The entire Leto-Bank network (with the exception of the head office in Moscow) will consist of branches without a cash desk. The bank's main products at the moment are POS loans (loans for the purchase of goods at retail outlets) and cash loans. POS lending does not involve the issuance of funds to the borrower. The bank solved the issue of cash loans, which usually require a cash register, technologically: they will be issued by ATMs located in bank branches using technology developed by the Multikarta company, part of the VTB Group. The process of obtaining such a loan is not too different from the traditional one. After approval of the application and conclusion of the loan agreement, the client does not go to the cashier for cash, but receives a special bar code (two-dimensional barcode) on paper and a PIN code in an SMS message. Next, the borrower brings the bar code to a special reader of the ATM, the client is identified, and after entering the PIN code, the ATM issues the loan amount to the borrower. According to Multikarta CEO Mikhail Zhuravlev, the use of cashless issuance technology allows banks to most effectively and quickly solve the problem of building a retail network.

This technology has not yet become widespread in the Russian market, although some banks use it as part of the development of light-format offices; in particular, 700 of the 1.5 thousand offices of HKF Bank are equipped with such ATMs. However, the model of building a network of branches without cash desks at all is not currently used by banks. The main reason is that accepting deposits in such branches is inconvenient for customers. “Branches serve not only for issuing loans, but also for accepting deposits, and although technically opening deposits through an ATM is possible, with large amounts of deposits this is inconvenient for the client,” says Alexey Levchenko, chairman of the board of Renaissance Credit Bank. Our average deposit amount is 450 thousand rubles, we prefer to open full-fledged branches." However, if the bank does not intend to attract deposits, the use of this format is fully justified, Mr. Levchenko sums up.

According to Leto-Bank President Dmitry Rudenko, the bank’s model does not currently involve attracting deposits from individuals. In the VTB Group, deposits from citizens are attracted by VTB 24 and the Bank of Moscow, then funding is distributed in connection with the needs of the group. “Issuing cash loans without a cash desk significantly reduces the bank’s costs, and therefore the cost of the final product for the client,” says Dmitry Rudenko. “And anything that reduces the cost of the loan for the client is suitable for us.” According to him, Leto-Bank plans to open 40 offices in 27 cities by the end of the year. “By the end of 2013, our network should already include about 300 customer centers,” continues Mr. Rudenko. “Within five to seven years, at least 1 thousand branches and several thousand points of presence in stores.”

Leto-Bank does not disclose the amount of savings that can be achieved through the use of technology for issuing loans through ATMs. According to experts, the cost of creating one cash register in a branch is about 1 million rubles. At the same time, issuing loans through an ATM requires a one-time, simple change in the software, the cost of which is several tens of thousands of dollars. “The format of light branches without a cash register allows the bank to save not only money, but also time,” says Vladimir Gasyak, deputy chairman of the board of HKF Bank. “A light branch can be opened within one to two weeks, while opening one full-fledged office with a cash register requires one to one and a half months.” In addition, when opening branches with a cash register, it is necessary to comply with the requirements of the Central Bank for security, space and other parameters, and light offices can be deployed in small areas, for example in shopping centers, he adds.

Ksenia Dementieva

Loans past the cash register