UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 25, 2020. NEYVA Bank’s executives believe the worst-case COVID-19 pandemic scenario will result in banks with high-risk lending policy incurring drastic losses.

Vice Chair of the Board at NEYVA Bank Igor Koshmin told UrBC that how many more private borrowers were going to fail to make their loan repayments on time would depend directly on how fast and how badly the coronavirus pandemic unfolds.

‘Small enterprises and micro-businesses in the tertiary sector are already facing a dramatic drop in customer demand and therefore in revenues. This means they won’t have the means to pay wages and salaries, which, in its turn, will lead to massive layoffs or unpaid leaves in the very near future. Add to this the large amount of loans Russians have to pay off and it becomes obvious that a prolonged COVID-19 pandemic will nearly kill the private borrowers’ paying capacity and will result in a soaring number of non-performing loans. Additionally, the weakening of the Russian ruble against the leading global currencies (brought about by plummeting oil prices) will also have a negative impact on the small businesses,’ Vice Chair of the Board at NEYVA Bank Igor Koshmin said in his comment to UrBC.