Citizens chipped in for a billion – Newspaper Kommersant No. 169 (7370) of 09/14/2022

In August, the volume of the crowdlending market in the Russian Federation exceeded 1.16 billion rubles, repeating the record result of last year’s December. After the failure in the spring, the segment grew 1.7 times. The return on investment here reaches 30% per annum, so crowdlending is in demand among a small part of investors who are ready for increased risk. However, the segment of high-yield bonds, with lower yields, but also a smaller share of delinquency, is a significant competitor to it.

According to the Association of Investment Platform Operators (data prepared by Moneyfriends), in August, the volume of loans issued in the crowdlending market repeated the record of December last year, exceeding 1.16 billion rubles. This result is 1.5 times higher than the monthly average in both 2022 and 2021. The growth of the market has been observed since May of this year – in three months the volume of issuance increased by 1.7 times.

The range of investment opportunities on the Russian market is drastically reduced, including due to the departure of risky strategies focused on foreign instruments. In addition, the rise in rates in the debt market in the spring turned out to be short-lived, and by now they have rolled back to the values ​​of the end of last year. At the same time, the rates in the crowdlending market are much higher than in other investment instruments – 20–27% per annum, which makes the segment extremely attractive for investors who are ready to take risks, explains Mark Savichenko, chief analyst at Ivolga Capital. According to the founder of Anderida Financial Group Alexey Tarapovsky, the rates on the market can reach 30% per annum.

Crowdlending in most cases is lending to small businesses or individual entrepreneurs. “Crowdlending companies have good scoring systems that allow them to filter out frankly bad borrowers. However, small business risks remain that are difficult to avoid,” Mr. Savichenko points out. In addition, according to Alexei Tarapovsky, “crowdlending platforms do not have a unified rating system, and in the event of a default, only the investor bears all the losses, the site can only incur reputational risks.”

Competing in this market is the high-yield bond (HDO) segment. According to the TG channel High Yield Bonds, the volume of placed issues from May to August amounted to about 3 billion rubles. Now, according to the Bonds lab resource, more than ten VDO issues worth 2.5 billion rubles are being placed. At the same time, the yield on such securities is lower than in loans on crowdlending platforms – 14-19% per annum.

VDO issuers are almost always larger businesses with a credit rating, explains Mark Savichenko. The volume of bond issues is 100–400 million rubles, while the average size of a transaction in the market with the largest crowdlending companies reaches 2 million rubles. The yield of VDO is lower, since bonds are issued by large public companies, the risks for which are much easier to track than for crowdlending borrowers, the expert believes. In part, the high risks of crowdlending are offset by short terms for providing funds, up to 12 months, while bonded loans are placed, as a rule, for two to three years. Nevertheless, “the share of overdue loans from one of the largest crowdlending companies is about 5%, which is higher than in the VDO segment,” Mr. Savichenko points out.

At the same time, the larger the business, the more it is subject to external influence, Yury Kolesnikov, a member of the expert council of the State Duma committee on the financial market, warns. Microbusiness adapts most quickly to any crisis, he explains, while VDO issuers – medium-sized businesses – are more exposed to stress and risks, they need more time to recover and adapt.

Polina Trifonova