Lending specifics in the Russian regions: new review by the Bank of Russia

For information on lending specifics in certain Russian regions, the general public as well as business people and bankers may now refer to a new information & analytical bulletin of the Bank of Russia: ‘Regional Credit Market Review’.

Readers of the bulletin will access the data related to a specific federal district or constituent territory of the Russian Federation, rather than averaged lending indicators for the country.

According to issue No. 1 of the review, banks extended more loans to borrowers of the regions with lower overdue loans (the Belgorod Region, Arkhangelsk Region, Tyumen Region, the Republic of Tatarstan and Chechen Republic) in Q4 of 2015. At the same time, banks largely tended to reduce lending in the regions with a higher credit risk (the Ivanovo Region, Smolensk Region, Pskov Region, the Republic of Kalmykia and Altai Territory).

Banks expect that demand for loans of both corporate and individual borrowers will be recovering in most of the regions in the short term. At the same time, banks do not expect more austere lending terms. This may somewhat accelerate growth in a corporate loan portfolio and recover growth in retail loan portfolio in most of the Russian regions.