Russian banks increased the percentage of refusals to customers for consumer loans: in September they rejected almost 63% of applications for cash loans, and in early October – more than 80%, writes RBC with reference to Sravni.ru analysts.
The approval rate for cash loans (approval rate, AR) by Russian banks in the first half of October dropped to the lowest level since the beginning of the year, 19%. In September the figure was 37.13%, and in August – 48.5%. A downward trend in the share of approved loans in the retail segment was also noted by the National Bureau of Credit History (NBKI). The bureau estimates that 19.6% of retail loans were approved in September, compared to 21.6% in August; the company does not yet have data for October.
According to independent expert Olga Ulyanova, the decrease in the level of approval of consumer loans is a long-term trend, since it is caused by fundamental factors, including the high debt burden of the population, tightening regulation, high inflation, etc. Banks remain interested in the growth of unsecured lending, and therefore will look for ways to support the profitability of this product, noted Valery Piven, head of the ACRA financial institutions ratings group.
Earlier at the end of August the Bank of Russia reduced macroprudential limits (MPL) on unsecured loans and borrowings for the fourth quarter. The regulator has already reduced their values for July–September, but the debt of borrowers with a high debt burden is still significant, the Central Bank noted.
The new MPL values, the regulator emphasized, will reduce the volume of loans provided in the fourth quarter by 22% compared to the volume that banks would have provided with unchanged limits. The tightening of the MPL is expected to reduce the growth rate of the loan portfolio by the end of 2023 by 6 percentage points, but the lending structure itself will become more balanced, which will lead to a reduction in the debt burden of Russians and the risks of banks and microfinance organizations.
