UrBC, Chelyabinsk, June 26, 2019. The average micro-loan amount issued on Chelyabinsk Region market in the first quarter of 2019 rose by 1.8% against one year earlier and came to RUB 6,778 (against RUB 6,656 in the first quarter of 2018), the National Credit History Bureau’s press service reports.

According to the 3,000 micro-financing organizations and consumer lending co-operatives that provide their statistics for the bureau, the average micro-loan amount remained nearly the same in the first quarter of 2019 as in the first quarter of 2018, only going up slightly (by 1.4%) and reaching RUB 7,700 (compared with RUB 7,600 a year earlier).

‘The micro-loan amounts are now rising more slowly due to both the micro-financing organizations’ improved business processes and the Bank of Russia’s regulatory measures. While the average ‘payday loan’ amount kept growing quite fast one to two years earlier, this growth nearly stopped in early 2019; the average loan amounts even decreased in certain parts of the country. On the whole, micro-financing organizations operate on a business model that makes it possible for them to issue loans to borrowers in the high-risk segment; this doesn’t mean, however, that a micro-loan is easily available in any amount, however large, or to anyone asking for one. The important thing to understand is that micro-financing organizations keep a close eye on the retail lending market fluctuations and manage their credit risks very efficiently in order to minimize their own losses,’ says the bureau’s Marketing Director Alexei Volkov.

The average loan amount decreased most noticeably in Saint Petersburg (-10%), Moscow (-9.9%), Leningrad Region (-6.1%), and Voronezh Region (-3.6%).