Figure of the day: Russians overdue payments on 7 million microcredits

According to RBC, citing data from the National Bureau of Credit Histories (NBKI), the number of loans overdue by more than 90 days in the portfolios of Russian microfinance organizations (MFIs) increased by 1.5 million in three months.

“The share of problem loans has exceeded 43%, the highest since the pandemic crisis”, - Forbes said in a statement.

In total, Russians took 16.1 million loans from MFIs. The number of loans overdue by more than three months has reached an all-time high since the 2020 pandemic. At the same time, in the last three months alone, the number of problem loans increased by 1.5 million, or 28.8%.

Experts believe that the reason for the current situation was "general uncertainty". As the economy deteriorates, people borrow less actively and pay less on them.

At the same time, among people who apply to MFIs, there is a large proportion of those who are in financial bondage: in the field of microloans, more than 41% are clients who give more than 80% of their income to pay off debts. Borrowers with such a high level of debt load more often than others cannot cope with the load and become problematic.