January 28, 2014, 00:00

Teapots do not take credit

Borrowers are losing interest in loans up to RUB 100,000. - in 2013, 20% fewer such loans were issued, according to NBKI data. Banks are looking for more reliable and larger borrowers Dina Ushakova Borrowers are taking out fewer and fewer small loans / S. Nikolaev / Vedomosti

In 2014, the main course of banks is to improve the quality of the loan portfolio and reduce the growth of reserves, so banks will pay attention to clients and products with a low level of risk, says Sergei Sitin, head of the Promsvyazbank department. These are primarily the bank’s current clients (salary projects, employees of accredited companies, depositors, good borrowers), as well as clients with stable incomes (public sector employees), possibly pensioners, he concludes (see sidebar).

In 2013, Russians received 22% fewer loans up to 10,000 rubles than in 2012, according to estimates from the National Bureau of Credit Histories (NBKI). The same trend is observed for all categories of loans up to RUB 100,000. (see table). But requests for loans over 100,000 rubles. grow, especially in the amount of more than 500,000 rubles. (23.8% growth over the year). NBKI statistics cover mortgages, car loans, loans for the purchase of consumer goods and credit cards. Loans for large amounts are mostly secured, says NBKI Marketing Director Alexey Volkov: “We see a clear trend of decreasing interest among Russians in obtaining loans for dummies towards loans for serious purchases.”

Banks really try to choose larger borrowers. VTB 24 recently announced that it is doubling the minimum threshold for a cash loan - up to 100,000 rubles. “The regulator’s measures to cool the consumer lending market have led to a decrease in issuance precisely in the riskiest segment - small unsecured loans for consumer purposes,” says Alexander Galkin, head of department at Globex Bank. According to his observations, growth in the segment is over 500,000 rubles. largely due to the increase in mortgage lending and its spread in the regions, as well as the resumption of the car loan incentive program.

Another major credit bureau, Equifax, also noticed a trend toward a decrease in the number of small bank loans. “Small loans are migrating to microfinance organizations, at the same time, bank clients have become more active in using credit cards, the average rates of which are more than 2 times lower than in POS lending,” says a representative of the bureau. The trend that NBKI is talking about is primarily related to the actions of the regulator, and secondly, to the fact that the population appreciated the convenience of using credit cards that have a grace period, says Alexey Kapustin, head of the Raiffeisenbank department. His bank does not lend less than RUB 50,000. in the regions, and in Moscow and St. Petersburg - less than 91,000 rubles.

“For banks, small loans for consumer goods are a good opportunity to attract customers without a credit history,” says Ekaterina Reznikova, director of risk management at Otkritie. But in the market as a whole, the level of losses for clients who have not yet managed to form their own credit history is higher, she admits. Moreover, since mid-2012, the average loan amount requested by a client has increased by more than 30%, Reznikova adds.

Lending to small and medium-sized businesses is beginning to actively develop, the bureau notes: since 2012, the number of such loans in the bureau’s database has increased by 25%, the average size was 535,000 rubles.