Interest rates on auto loans for more than 3 years fell below 14% for the first time since 2021

According to the results of June, rates on auto loans of Russian banks issued for a period of more than three years, for the first time since 2021, were less than 14%. Against the backdrop of a continuing deficit in the car market, bankers can afford to cut rates without losing business margins: average car loan checks continue to grow at double-digit rates.

According to the Central Bank, in June, interest rates on car loans for more than three years for the first time since December 2021 were below 14%, to 13.91%. A year earlier, for comparison, the figure reached almost 15%.

Rates began to gradually decline in March. The trend coincided with a record pace of recovery in the car loan market. Thus, according to the analytical agency Frank RG, following the results of July, banks issued 113.6 thousand car loans to citizens in the amount of 165 billion rubles. This is 37% and 30% more than in June. Year-on-year growth was 114% and 186%, and compared to previous records in 2021, growth was 28% and 40%, respectively.

The segment is growing against the background of the implementation of pent-up demand, fears of the population about the growth in the cost of cars, the intensification of production at Russian enterprises and the filling of the market with Chinese models (see Kommersant of July 4 and July 31). However, despite these factors, the market remains scarce, experts emphasize.

“The main share of transactions still falls on the purchase of used cars, the market capacity of which is also filled more slowly against the backdrop of the savings model of the population’s behavior and, as a result, a rarer replacement of a car,” explains Ilya Zharsky, managing partner of the Veta expert group.

Against the backdrop of a continuing shortage and difficulties with parallel imports of familiar brands (the share of parallel imports in total car loans does not exceed 6% in terms of the number of transactions), car prices continue to rise and, as a result, the average check in the car loan market grows. Thus, according to the results of July, it reached an indicator of 1.5 million rubles, follows from the data of Frank RG, which is 17% more than a year earlier.

This allows credit institutions to maintain high margins in the segment, despite the reduction in rates, experts say. In addition, competition among banks for a paying client is also growing, bankers say, including from Chinese dealers and automakers who offer their own loyalty programs and bonuses to customers.

Evgeny Nadorshin, chief economist at PF Capital, does not rule out that the actions of dealers could have influenced the reduction in interest rates on car loans. “Relatively recently, in June, dealers began to raise the cost of cars, justifying this by increasing salvage fees, although this did not concern most of the players who raised prices,” explains Mr. Nadorshin. “Against this background, banks that traditionally work in partnership with dealers, could cut rates to offset rising car prices and make loans more attractive.”

Against the backdrop of the launch of local production and the persistence of pent-up demand, banks needed to increase lending “as soon as possible, while people are ready to spend, before rates are raised,” Mr. Nadorshin notes. In such a situation, the expert believes, banks are usually ready to give up the margin on one loan, but “take it in volume.”

Polina Trifonova, Olga Sherunkova