Column by Ksenia Dementieva about clearing the credit market at different levels

This year, the Central Bank did not revoke a single license from a credit institution. Yes, banks joined, handed over their licenses themselves, but by force – no, Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Alexei Guznov pleased the public with positive information, however, with a caveat: “At least for the current period.”

The Central Bank began clearing the banking market in 2013 with the arrival of Elvira Nabiullina as head of the regulator. In total, since 2013, 452 banks have been withdrawn from the market, and 15 players have undergone financial recovery. Licenses of credit institutions were revoked before 2013, although not as actively. But so far 2023 is setting a record – the last time not a single license was revoked was in 1991. Now there are 324 operating banks left in the Russian Federation.

Experts are confident that we shouldn’t expect any reviews next year either, unless “there will be sporadic ones.” And the point is not only that the total purge was completed, but also that the sanctions, aimed primarily at the largest players, unexpectedly strengthened small banks – there were benefits for everyone, and the latter had almost no problems on an international scale. But a new source of income has appeared – the international settlement business, which has become difficult for the sanctioned market leaders.

However, other parts of the financial market are far from such an idyll. The Central Bank controls at least two more large retail credit segments – microfinance organizations (MFOs) and pawnshops. And here, at first glance, there is still room for improvement.

In the MFO market, of course, the Central Bank has already done a good job: in the profile register there are 8993 excluded organizations and only 1014 active players. In 2023, the Central Bank excluded 215 microfinance organizations from the register and registered only 70 new ones. In 2024, according to experts, about 20% of players may leave the market.

Pawnshops came under the control of the Central Bank in the fall of 2014; at that time, one of the oldest debt financing markets in Russia (existing since 1729) lived completely uncontrolled and consisted of more than 8 thousand players. After the transition to the supervision of the Central Bank, the number of pawnshops decreased to the current 1880. During this year, 258 pawnshops were excluded from the register, while 153 new ones were registered (four of them, however, have already left the list).

Kommersant’s interlocutors in the market believe that in reality, in the microfinance and pawnshop segments, a certain balance has also already been achieved. However, the prospects for them do not look so encouraging, especially against the backdrop of growing regulatory burden. Here, Kommersant’s sources agree, no additional measures on the part of the Central Bank will be needed; there are very few forced exclusions among these players – they simply die quietly or go into shadow business.