Leading credit bureau announced that Russia’s credit performance has reached a seven year low
In April, 14.2% of Russian credit accounts were delinquent compared with 11.5% in April 2014, and just 7.1% in January 2012. Credit cards and consumer loans saw the biggest rise in delinquencies, but delinquencies also grew for mortgages.
Evgeni Shtemanetyan, who directs FICO’s operations in Russia, said: “We have seen this trend for several quarters now, and we counsel the banks to communicate frequently with their customers, as well as to apply sound risk management practices to ensure delinquent customers don’t drain portfolio profitability.”
However, Alexander Vikulin, CEO of NBKI, believes that due to the increase in FICO Score purchases we can expect a turnaround for Russia’s credit performance, Alexander said: “Lenders are increasing their account monitoring and the volume of FICO Scores purchased for account management purposes is growing. As a result of such measures, we expect to see the index rise in the near future.”
