MFI reduced the approval of loans for repeated customers
Microfinance organizations (MFIs), which were primarily focused on working with verified – repeated – customers, unexpectedly reduced the level of approval of applications to them. Market participants say that this is a consequence of the tightness of the Central Bank and the struggle with the Zakreditiy of citizens. Repeated customers account for more than 60% in the issues of MFIs, and the reduction in approval in this segment is fraught with a narrowing of the client funnel, a reduction in extradition and profit.
SRO « Mir » estimated the level of approval for the primary and repeated MFI clients following the results of the first quarter of 2025 (the data is at the disposal of Kommersant). According to the SRO, for repeated customers, at which large MFIs have an average of more than 60%, the approval level has lowered to a minimum over the past three years and amounted to 71%. In primary clients, the level of approval throughout 2024 and the first quarter of 2025 (24%) was 23–25%.
“In the first quarter of 2025, a decrease in the approval level of repeated customers, which began in 2024, continued,” confirms the risks of EQVANTA Group of Companies Ion Boloshenka.
According to him, a decrease in the level of approval of applications to repeated customers is a consequence of the company’s adaptation to new regulatory restrictions: macroprudentic limits were tightened during 2024.
“In addition, the need to calculate the debt load for loans, regardless of the amount, and not only for loans from 10 thousand rubles, affected. And above, and the accounting of information from all the bureaus of credit stories for calculating macropruents, ”says Moneyman CEO Artem Bykov.“ It was the segment of repeated customers here that turned out to be the most prone to the total effect of the above. ” The market can be traced “re -loan behavior” when one loan is extinguished at the expense of anotherOLim Limite, indicates the commercial director of the Lim-Zaim IFC Leonid Dulenkov.
However, there are players who bet on new customers. “We consciously make a choice in favor of new customers, as we proceed to the strategy of optimal business growth … We are mastering a new audience of borrowers, since we test new products designed for banking“ refuseniks ”,” said Kommersant Roman Makarov, General Director of the IMF Buser.
However, for most players, a decrease in the level of approval of repeated customers is a forced story that does not pass without a trace for business. The consequence of this was a decrease in the risk of appetites and narrowing of the client’s funnel, predicts Mr. Bykov. In 2025, the conversion of approval of both new and regular customers will not be higher than the levels of 2024, says Aleksey Imhovik, Director General of the IFC Summit. Reducing the level of approval precisely for repeated customers, whose share accounts for more than 60% of issuance, according to market participants, cannot but affect the results of the MFI. “If the MFIs begin to tighten the funnel in terms of repeated customers, this will lead to a decrease in the portfolio, an increase in the share of new customers, which is associated with the risks that the new borrowers are potentially carry,” explains Oleg Berdasov, director of the risk management department of the IFC. “Plus, new loans are most often issued free of charge, which affects the rescue.”
According to the forecast of the Agency « Expert RA », the increase in the issuance of MFI loans in 2025 will be 60%, up to 2.4 trillion rubles.
“Replacing PDL longer with analogues in the form of high -margin ILs to comply with macroprudentic limits and high growth rates of classic IL,” the agency indicate. “These trends will determine the correlation of the dynamics of the portfolio and issuance, which will lead to a portfolio growth of 50% in 2025.” After the pressure of a one-time formation of reserves throughout the IL portfolio with PSK from 250% per annum, the agency expects the profit dynamics to become positive due to the high margin segment. Thus, according to our forecasts, profit growth can be 5-15% in 2025 (53 billion rubles in 2024), and the expert RA concludes. According to the results of the year, the market volume can show an increase at the level of 2024. The driver will still remain the driver, according to the SRO « Peace ». “According to our data, as of the end of 2024, banking MFIs accounted for almost 45%, for a year we saw an increase of 10 percentage points,” they indicate there. “Most likely this year, the share of banking MFIs in the total portfolio will exceed 50%.”
