The issuance of credit cards to Russians in January 2020 declined for the first time at least for 5 years this month compared to the same period last year.
The number of issued cards fell by 21.7% (to 540,2 thousand pieces), and in monetary terms (the total limit on credit cards) the issue fell 22.7% to 22.8 billion rubles, according to RBC, citing data from the credit history Bureau “Equifax” for the period from 2015.
As suggested by the Vice-President of the Agency Moody’s Olga Ulyanova, the observed dynamics is a continuation of the trend in the cooling segment of the consumer because of the actions of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. In addition, the expert said, January is “low season” for lending to individuals, therefore, “common trends evident in this month even more noticeable”.
We will remind, last week it became known that in Russia in January 2020 issued 1.27 million loans to buy consumer goods (consumer loans) that is by 13.4% less than in the same period of the previous year (1.47 million). The experts of the National Bureau of credit histories (nbki) recorded a decline of consumer loans in almost all regions of the country.
“Currently, the segment of unsecured consumer lending has developed a stable trend: banks are trying to lend only to those whose level of debt and the value personal credit rating (PCR) are at the proper level”, — explained the General Director nbki Alexander Vikulin.
In his words, “introduction by the Bank of Russia in October last year and compulsory for the creditors of the debt burden indicator (PDN) only reinforced the trend for a more thorough assessment of borrowers by banks.”
Last year, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation has repeatedly expressed concern about the pace of growth of consumer credit and debt load of Russians, which significantly outpaced the growth of nominal incomes and wages.
In response to the situation, the regulator ordered since October 1, 2019 Russian banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) in making decisions about the provision of consumer credit from 10 thousand rubles and more to count so-called indicator of debt burden of the borrower. That is, the financial institution evaluate the ratio of monthly loan payments to monthly income of the borrower. Moreover, if the MFI gives the state entities the client of PD exceeds 50%, it will incur additional burden on capital in the amount of 50% of the loan amount (65% from 1 January 2020).
We also add that, according to estimates by the credit history Bureau “Equifax”, the amount of outstanding citizens of the Russian Federation more than 90 days consumer credits at the end of 2019 amounted to 486 billion rubles, down for the year by 7.6% at the end of 2018 was observed a reduction of 10% to 525 billion rubles.
At the same time, noted TASS, the share of overdue more than 90 days debt in the total volume of consumer credits (to 4.37 trillion roubles at the end of last year) has also decreased over the year. At the end of 2019, it was 11% against 14% by the end of 2018.
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