The number of Russians with microloans for six months has grown by almost a quarter

The number of Russians with active loans in microfinance organizations (MFOs) since the beginning of the year has increased by 2.26 million people, or 23.5%, follows from the statistics of the largest self-regulatory organization on the market “MiR”. At the end of the second quarter, there were 11.87 million MFI borrowers in the country. Over the entire pandemic 2020, the base of active clients in this segment grew by 9.5%, or by 835 thousand people, writes RBC.

According to Rosstat, in the second quarter of 2021, the labor force in Russia reached 75.3 million people, that is, MFO borrowers account for 15.8% of the economically active population. In the second quarter alone, microfinance companies issued 7.9 million new loans to the population for 104.6 billion rubles. Taking into account the results of January-March for the first half of the year, the issuances approached 200 billion rubles, which is almost a third more than the result of the second half of last year, when lending in Russia began to recover after the first wave of the pandemic.

The influx of borrowers is due to the fact that the population still needs such funds due to the lack of income growth, says Irina Khoroshko, General Director of IDF Eurasia (MoneyMan brand). According to her, both new and repeat clients come to MFOs.

The Bank of Russia previously indicated an increase in the share of citizens who apply to MFOs, already having overdue debt on a bank loan. As of October 1, 2020, they accounted for 14.8% of clients of microfinance companies – this is the maximum since 2018.

The situation in the MFO market is in many ways similar to that observed in the unsecured lending segment – the growth of loans is significantly ahead of the increase in real incomes of the population, says Konstantin Borodulin, director of bank ratings of the NRA. “The trend leads to an increase in the debt burden of borrowers and is fraught with an increase in overdue debt and the share of problem loans, which ultimately may negatively affect both the banking sector and the MFO sector,” he explained.