UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 24, 2017. Sverdlovsk Oblast residents using micro-financing services borrowed RUR 10,067 on average in the third quarter of the year, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 24.5%, National Credit History Bureau reports.

The increase was most pronounced in Krasnodar Territory (+55.9%), Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region (+35.5%), Novosibirsk Oblast (+32.2%), and Bryansk Oblast (+25.1%). The average loan amount actually went down in Volgograd Oblast (-3.9%), Moscow Oblast (-0.7%), and Moscow (-0.4%).

‘The average micro-loan amount keeps rising in all borrower age groups, but the growth is fastest in the under-30 age group. Micro-financing organizations have always been popular with the young, even though this particular borrower category is generally seen as risky. Still, the way micro-financing organizations operate allows them to offer funds to high-risk borrower categories and manage their credit risk efficiently so as to minimize losses. One way to achieve this is to be flexible on the micro-loan amount,’ says the Bureau’s Director-General Alexander Vikulin.