UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 6, 2017. 299,405 consumer loans got issued to Sverdlovsk Region-based borrowers in the first eight months of 2017, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 33%, the National Credit History Bureau’s press service reports.

9.94m loans got issued to applicants throughout Russia on the whole in the first half of the year, which was 27% more than in January-June 2016 (7.83m). The loan-issuing activity was at its lowest in August 2017, even though the increase was still 13.2% against August 2016.

The overall consumer loan amount came to RUR 1.37 trillion in January-August 2017, which was 35.7% more than in January-August 2016 (RUR 1.01 trillion).

‘The time when banks had to cut down on their consumer lending practices and only offered loans to customers with very good credit history and low debt burden is now over. As the economy is entering its more stable phase, banks find ways to offer more unsecured loans. Borrowers, in their turn, are now more interested in taking out loans after several years of waiting out. However, it’s early times yet to expect a prolific growth on the consumer loan market. The people’s factual income dynamics remains one of the primary risk factors,’ says the Bureau’s Director-General Alexander Vikulin.