Financial marketplaces began offering car loans to customers

Financial marketplaces are beginning to offer clients new services, including, for example, car loans. However, the entry of new platforms into the market remains long, sometimes taking more than a year. The development of such projects requires significant investments and a sustainable business model, experts say. Additionally, the expansion of marketplaces is hampered by fierce competition from banks. As a result, the first three major players continue to dominate the market – Finuslugi, Sravni, Banki.ru.

“Open Financial Marketplace” (OFM; in the register of operators of financial platforms of the Central Bank since December 2021) began issuing online car loans, its CEO Daniel Zelensky told Kommersant. Lending was launched jointly with the Fresh automobile marketplace, OFM acts as the platform operator. The buyer logs in through Gosuslugi and requests loan offers from banks using the financial marketplace infrastructure.

OFM also plans to launch online mortgages. Among the partners so far there are only Expobank and OTP-Bank; the connection of four more credit institutions is expected within a month, and by the end of the year the number of partners may increase to ten.

In total, the Central Bank register now includes nine financial platforms, four of which are included in it until 2022. However, from the moment of entry into the register until the start of real work, as a rule, many months, or even years, pass.

For example, the website of the EDF marketplace (entered the register at the end of June 2023) states that it “operates in testing mode and has limited functionality.” The website of the Finplatform marketplace (part of the CIAN perimeter, entered the register in April 2023) also posted a notification about the test mode: “Working service in development.”

Market participants note that the long time it takes to launch projects is associated with taking into account many factors, including meeting regulatory requirements.

According to Daniel Zelensky, for two years the company “created infrastructure, a product, invested hundreds of millions of rubles, and also looked for like-minded partners among banks and client traffic partners.”

The EDF explained to Kommersant that “the launch process is slow, since the functionality of the financial platform involves complex technical integrations.” In particular, on the one hand, it is necessary to comply with “serious regulatory requirements for working with personal data and consumer identification,” and on the other, to ensure “data exchange with every financial institution.” The EDF relies on its own field representatives in more than 700 cities of the Russian Federation. “Thus, we can offer partner banks an expansion of their geographic presence, and increase the level of accessibility of financial services to clients,” the company clarified.

At the same time, market participants who entered it earlier than others are gaining momentum. The financial marketplace Compare (on the register since August 2021) first announced the launch of online lending with the participation of five banks in November 2022. At the beginning of 2024, the number of users of online loans and the “Compare” credit rating was 450 thousand people, and the average monthly growth of the audience was 60 thousand people. The site offers deposits from several banks, and in the future it is planned to increase their number to ten, and online mortgages are also being piloted.

Banks.ru (in the register since September 2022) noted that in 2023, about 200 thousand deposits worth more than 200 billion rubles were made through their services. The number of clients who used at least one service on the marketplace exceeded 600 thousand people, and the number of partner banks reached fifteen.

Financial Services (part of the Moscow Exchange group, in the Central Bank register since August 2020) did not respond to Kommersant’s request. The marketplace website mentions 13 banks and 16 insurance companies whose services you can use.

The sustainability of business models of financial marketplaces “remains in question,” believes financial expert Andrei Barkhota. According to him, “marketplaces are forced to develop several areas and not limit themselves to one type of product in order to secure themselves in terms of sources of income.”

At the same time, the expert clarifies, they have to “survive in a difficult competitive environment,” since banks are also investing in the development of online lending, as well as developing partnership projects and distribution of products through other channels (shopping centers, communication stores, etc.). Moreover, Mr. Barhota emphasizes, not all banks benefit from cooperating with marketplaces, where the client gets the one with better conditions. Therefore, in his opinion, the existing oligopoly in the marketplace market will continue.

Representatives of marketplaces are more positive. Banks.ru believes that “financial marketplaces are gradually ceasing to be the choice of the minority.” If last year small regional banks were more interested in connecting to the financial platform (which had the opportunity to expand their geographic presence without opening branches), the service explains, then at the beginning of 2024, “interest also appeared among large players.”

Olga Sherunkova