Income from microfinance organizations took up a significant share of commission income of financial marketplaces

Receipts from microfinance organizations (MFOs) took up a significant share in commission income of financial marketplaces for the first nine months of this year. According to experts, the increase in the share of MFOs is associated with the objective growth of this market. The MFOs themselves admit that by working through marketplaces, they hope to get better clients, for whom they are willing to pay increased commissions to the marketplaces.

The share of marketplace commissions from services provided by microfinance organizations has increased significantly this year. According to the general director of Banki.ru Dinara Yunusova, the share of microfinance organizations in Banki.ru commissions has increased several times compared to 2022 and today is about half of the total. General Director of Sravni.ru Sergei Leonidov said that their share of MFOs in commissions also increased several times in 2023.

According to independent expert Andrei Barkhota, the commissions received by Sravni.ru from loan applications at the end of 2022 amounted to approximately 8–12%, and in 2023 this share could increase to 30%. “Financial services,” like the market as a whole, have been showing an increase in commission income in this area since the beginning of this year, adds project managing director Igor Alutin. According to Mr. Barhota, the share of banks could decrease as part of the mortgages moved from marketplaces to specialized mortgage brokers.

MFOs confirm the trend. The share of the Banki.ru and Sravni.ru marketplaces has increased over the past year to 50% of all customer acquisition channels for companies, says Eqvanta CFO Yakov Romashkin. According to Andrey Ponomarev, CEO of the online financial platform Webbankir, the share of marketplaces in attracting customers is about 20%. According to Moneyman Marketing Director Andrey Greznev, marketplaces are a very important acquisition channel for MFOs and today their share in the total acquisition volume on the market is on average 30%. According to the results of the latest survey of SRO MiR members, every fourth company named, in particular, marketplaces as tools for increasing customer traffic, adds Elman Mehdiyev, Chairman of the Council of SRO MiR.

Attracting customers through marketplaces is indeed more expensive, but it’s worth it, market participants say. This channel is one of the drivers of growth in lending to microfinance organizations, but, as a rule, the cost of attraction on marketplaces exceeds the cost of other channels by about 10–15%, says Yakov Romashkin. Marketplaces provide high-quality traffic: when submitting an application through them, the client already fills in information about himself, based on it, the marketplace algorithms direct the client to the company whose requirements he is more likely to meet, explains Mr. Ponomarev. According to him, the competition between companies is now just for a high-quality borrower.

Over time, according to experts, the growth of marketplace commissions from microfinance organizations will slow down. According to Sergei Grishunin, manager of the NRA rating service, growth rates in 2024 will be 10–15% lower than in 2023. Growing competition among microfinance organizations for space on platforms and the growth of BNPL programs are factors in the growth of commissions, but, on the other hand, regulation of the industry is becoming more complicated, he explains. Thus, with the introduction of strict macroprudential limits by the Central Bank for the microfinance industry and the upcoming inclusion of loans in the amount of up to 10 thousand rubles. When calculating the debt burden of the borrower (see “Kommersant” on October 6), a significant part of traditional MFO clients will be cut off from the possibility of obtaining a loan.

Yulia Poslavskaya, Polina Trifonova