Corporate loans rates decreased to 15.6%
Even before the June decision of the Central Bank to reduce the key rate, the rate on medium -term corporate loans fell below 16% per annum. Experts believe that large borrowers played the main role in this, which account for more than 60% of the issuance of such loans. In particular, construction companies attract cheaper products to the remains of escrow accounts. In the conditions of a reduced key rate, short -term loans will be further cheaper, the issuance of which will be growing, experts believe.
According to the latest data from the Bank of Russia, in April 2025, the average weighted rates on loans on legal entities for a period of year to three years fell to 15.6% per annum, although 17-18% per annum were held in the first quarter. At the same time, the bets on both longer and shorter loans showed less significant changes. So, in April for loans for more than three years, the weighted average rate amounted to 18.8% per annum against 19.4% per annum in March, for different periods of up to one year, the rates were 22.2–24.1% per annum against 20.2–24.5% per annum.
At the same time, the share of medium -term loans increased and almost reached 35%, while during the previous months of this year it never reached 30%. According to the Central Bank, in April 2025, the volume of loans provided by legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, with the exception of loans to borrowers from the insurance and financial industry, amounted to 5.5 trillion rubles. (growth of 1.4% compared to March). The total debt on legal entities on May 1 amounted to 77.1 trillion rubles. (growth of 1.3%), while the share of preferential loans has not changed and remained at the level of 6.1%. Thus, preferential loans could not affect the reduction in loan rates for a period of a year to three years.
Experts agree that the funds provided to large borrowers played the main role in reducing the rate on medium -term loans. In particular, according to the Central Bank, the rates on loans of small and medium -sized businesses have not changed much: about 20% per annum for long -term and about 23% per annum for short -term loans. Yuri Belikov, managing director of the expert RA rating agency, believes that this is due to the expectations of the start of the key rate of the key rate and the fact that the banks were convinced that they managed to avoid “interest scissors” after a sharp increase in the cost of funding at the end of last year. “Nobody needs an increase in the defaults of borrowers, so the banks began to look towards optimizing their debt load, at least by new issues when such an opportunity appeared,” the expert is sure. In his opinion, it could also affect the statistics and refinancing of loans of the largest companies, which probably began to try to incline creditors to improve loan parameters, feeling the near mitigation of monetary conditions.
In addition, the MVA-Professor of the Digital Finance of the Presidential Academy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Alexei Volukov, draws attention to the Bank of Russia noted: in April, companies of the construction industry played the main role in the growth of corporate lending. “Builders occupy money in banks for the remains that lie on the escrow accounts, and for such loans the rates are much lower than the market,” Mr. Volukov points out. In particular, according to the project financing of construction companies, in April they gained loans by about 250 billion rubles. under 10.4% per annum.
At the same time, a decrease in the key rate to 20% in early June will have a positive impact on the lending market. According to Roman Prokhorov, deputy chairman of the Council of Commerce of the Russian Federation on financial, industrial and investment policy, a decrease in the key rate will primarily affect loans up to one year, “since they are the most“ issued ”(according to the Central Bank, they account for slightly less than 50% of loans issued in April. « Kommersant ») and the growth of credit activity is realized primarily through them. ” According to the Kommersant source in a large bank, « long -term rates will decrease more slowly only if the market is convinced of the stability of the trend for softening politics and reducing inflation. » At the same time, companies with high creditworthiness will win most, “since banks will fight for such borrowers, offering the best conditions,” the interlocutor of Kommersant said.
