There is no one to chip in – Newspaper Kommersant No. 182 (7383) dated 10/03/2022
[ad_1]
The crowdfunding (crowdlending) market, which has just begun to recover, is waiting for a new slowdown. The outflow of specialists, fears that partial mobilization will still affect the IT segment, a decrease in investor interest in risk, and companies in attracting loans and expanding their business played against the market. It is still difficult to estimate the losses, and, according to experts, a recovery under the new conditions may occur by the end of the first quarter of 2023.
Almost all investment platform operators have the status of accredited IT companies, so now the industry is busy retaining valuable personnel and processing exemptions from mobilization. “But it doesn’t help. The crowdlending segment has lost about 30% of the staff, who left the Russian Federation for various reasons, – says the interlocutor of Kommersant in one of the crowdlending companies. – If IT specialists are counting on the promised exemption from mobilization, then client managers and marketers quit en masse. They could be replaced, but not in such a quantity and not at once, in addition, there are few specialists familiar with the specifics of the crowdlending market, he continues. All this disrupts the normal production process, the industry will definitely, albeit not for a long time, lose the dynamics of growth and development, another interlocutor of Kommersant agrees.
Crowdfunding, crowdlending is a way to raise funds for a business using online platforms. Money can be borrowed or exchanged for a share of future profits. Funds are provided by investors – individuals or legal entities. There are 66 investment platform operators in the register of the Central Bank. In 2021, the loan market was estimated at RUB 9 billion. According to the Bank of Russia, as of March 31, 2022, the amount of delinquency in the market exceeded RUB 0.5 billion.
Most companies refuse to talk about personnel, they only emphasize that “the topic is very painful.” Until now, there are no clear criteria for obtaining reservations for the financial sector, recalls Dmitry Alexandrov, Executive Director of Ivolga Capital Investment Company. “The situation is also aggravated by the government’s decree of September 30, according to which the Ministry of Digital Development denies accreditation to non-credit financial organizations,” continues Yury Kolesnikov, member of the expert council of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, “The actual ban on accreditation as an IT company for crowdlending platforms will further exacerbate the problem of outflow personnel”. The growth rate of the client base of both investors and borrowers will fall. Companies will slow down. They will be able to recover by February-March if the optimistic scenario is implemented, Mr. Kolesnikov fears.
There are no statistics on the number of employees employed in the crowdlending industry. It is still difficult to estimate losses in figures, but they will definitely be, market participants are sure.
After the surge in September, as a consequence of the adaptation, there will be a slowdown due to the outflow of personnel, a decrease in risk appetite – investors want to invest only in reliable borrowers with good A and A + ratings and do not want to invest in IP loans, Yury Kolesnikov warns. The decrease in the number of borrowers who are ready to attract loans through crowdfunding platforms also negatively affects the market, the expert points out. According to the Association of Investment Platform Operators (prepared by Moneyfriends), in August, the volume of loans issued in the crowdlending market repeated the record of December last year, exceeding 1.16 billion rubles. This result is 1.5 times higher than the monthly average in both 2022 and 2021. The growth of the market has been observed since May of this year – in three months the volume of issuance increased by 1.7 times.
The market is frozen, again it takes time to adapt to new conditions. The general uncertainty, including for employees, inevitably forces us to reconsider the priorities of the nearest investment plans and the launch of new products, adds Kirill Kosminsky, Executive Director of the Association of Investment Platform Operators. “For example, only recently Mikhail Mishustin gave instructions to intensively develop innovative areas, including the implementation of digital assets,” the expert says. “Many of the leading platforms are preparing to launch these services, because this is a cost reduction for those who attract investments.” But these and other developments are now shifting in time, he concludes.
[ad_2]
Source link
