MFO borrowers returned to the schedule – Newspaper Kommersant No. 165 (7366) of 09/08/2022

By August, the level of early repayment in the payday loans segment had almost returned to what it was at the beginning of the year after the spring failure. This was facilitated by the stabilization of the situation in the economy, as well as the desire of customers to reduce their liabilities. However, the trend is unlikely to last: rising prices, seasonal spending and the persistence of general economic instability are forcing even high-quality borrowers to hold onto money. Moreover, market participants are not going to ease the scoring conditions.

According to the online alternative lending service Moneyman, which Kommersant got acquainted with, in August 8% of microloans were repaid ahead of schedule. Thus, after the spring failure, the indicator returned to the values ​​of the beginning of the year, in February it was 8.8%. We are talking about “payday loans” – in the amount of up to 30 thousand rubles. for a period of a month.

The recovery in the share of early repayments is a positive trend for the industry in the current economic conditions, says Sergey Vesovshchuk, CEO of Moneyman, even though they reduce the profitability of loans in the short term. “In the longer term, they eliminate the risk of default by the respective clients. In addition, the sooner the borrowers return the funds, the sooner they can be directed to new loans,” he explains.

In April, the prepayment rate dropped to 3.5%, almost like the pandemic summer of 2020, when it was in the range of 3.2-3.4%, according to Moneyman data. “During this period, lenders tightened their scoring policy the most,” the authors of the study explain. “In times of crisis, customers with a shorter term and a small loan amount tend to repay earlier,” confirms Artem Bykov, general director of the Migcredit MFC.

At the same time, more than 75% of loans for which partial or full early repayment is recorded are issued by repeat customers, Moneyman emphasizes.

This indicates that market participants maintain a conservative lending policy, even despite some stabilization of the situation. And clients themselves, against the background of continuing financial uncertainty, take loans for really urgent needs, preferring to repay them ahead of schedule, adds Igor Smirnov, CEO of Creditter MCC.

However, it is unlikely that the rate of early repayments will be returned to the level of 2021 (11–13%) this year, market participants agree. “The number of early repayments of loans in autumn traditionally decreases. And so far there are no prerequisites for the trend to reduce early repayments to be reversed this year, ”notes Leonid Kornilov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Finbridge fintech group. And in general, in the fall, traditionally, many people expect the economic situation to worsen and prefer to “hold” money, he says.

However, despite the increased quality of the client base, the company does not plan to ease the requirements for borrowers for at least another six months, Roman Makarov, general director of the IFC Zaimer, emphasizes.

“Weakening requirements for borrowers during the high season does not make sense, unless the company is going to take market share more aggressively,” confirms Artem Bykov. “It is too optimistic to expect that in such a situation market participants are ready to take on big risks, given the current news background,” Elman Mekhtiyev, chairman of the Council of SRO Mir, agrees. Andrey Kleymenov, CEO of Eqvanta Group, clarifies that “new customers practically do not pay off, the business model is based on repeated requests.”

Polina Trifonova