Mir: Russians took microloans for a record 151 billion rubles in the 4th quarter of 2021
Photo: Viktor Korotaev / Kommersant
From October to December 2021, the Russians received 11.2 million microloans for 150.9 billion rubles, RBC writes, citing data from Microfinance and Development, the largest self-regulatory organization of microfinance organizations on the market. In annual terms, the increase was 117.9 percent, which was a record since 2019.
For the entire 2021, the portfolio of loans to individuals grew by almost one and a half times (by 47.1 percent) and amounted to 234.1 billion rubles. In the 4th quarter, growth accelerated particularly strongly, with the number of loans growing by 12.3 percent. For the entire year, microfinance organizations (MFOs) issued 35.7 million loans for a total amount of 472.5 billion rubles, which is 70 and 77 percent more than in 2020, respectively. The number of active loan agreements at the end of last year exceeded 15.2 million.
The vast majority of borrowers in the 4th quarter took out loans online – the share of such loans reached 80.4 percent for the year. Year by year, the number and amount of loans issued online have almost tripled. “People's incomes are not keeping up with inflation, and loans are an easy way to maintain the usual quality of life. Another reason for the growth of the market is the popularity and convenience of online lending services,” Andrey Ponomarev, CEO of the Webbankir online financial platform, explained the trend.
Roman Makarov, head of MFC Zaimer, explains the growth of the MFI portfolio by strengthening the positions of the largest players and the massive transition of banking clients to the microfinance market. Nadezhda Dimchenko, commercial director of the MigCredit MFC, added that many industry participants have reoriented their business processes in favor of online disbursements, and borrowers have “reorganized psychologically” and began to take microloans again.
At the end of December 2021, representatives of the Central Bank announced that they intended to tighten regulation of the microfinance market. In the draft Guidelines for the Development of the Financial Market for 2022-2024, the Central Bank outlined three tasks to improve market regulation – increasing the transparency of the sector and protecting consumers, creating conditions for the remote provision of services to MFOs, as well as reducing the costs of these organizations and the regulatory burden.
