Banks have lowered loan approvals to a record low of 5%

In January this year, the level of loan approval in banks fell to a record low, amounting to 5%, told "Izvestia" in the financial marketplace "Compare". This figure was the lowest in the history of such statistics in the marketplace, they admitted. In the first month of 2024, the percentage of approvals amounted to 22%, they said.

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In large banks and BCI "Izvestia" generally confirmed the trend. The level of approval of consumer loans in January this year decreased by more than half compared to the same period in 2024, VTB stated. The bank added: this year the demand for loans against the background of high interest rates was lower by 30% than a year earlier.

The approval rate declined for most of last year both in the entire retail sector and in the segment of consumer loans, said Alexei Volkov, marketing director of the National Bureau of Credit Histories. But the company does not yet have data for January.

Oleg Lagutkin, general director of Scoring Bureau, said that in January the approval rate for consumer loans did not change compared to the previous month.

The reasons for the growth of refusals - in the strict policy of the Central Bank, market participants and experts are unanimous in their opinion. First of all, we are talking about the increase in the key rate (up to a record 21%) and the tightening of quantitative restrictions on the issuance of loans to high-risk borrowers.

The growth of refusals will save some citizens from the debt trap, but others will be pushed to go to MFIs, where interest rates are much higher, or even to illegal lenders, experts fear.

Read more in an exclusive Izvestia article:

In closed access: banks began to reject 95 applications for consumer loans out of 100