Debt Hunters
Bankers and microfinance organizations are starting to acquire their own collection agencies. Naturally, not without reason: in the conditions of high interest rates on loans, it becomes especially profitable to first foist off a loan and then knock it out of the debtor by reselling it to yourself.
Two major players in the retail lending market recently announced the creation of their own collection agencies. Bank Russian Standard established a structure called PKO Mediator, and the microfinance company Zaimer became the owner of the collection agency Profi.
One of the reasons for creditors entering the collection market was most likely the recent changes in legislation: from now on, the internal services of the creditors themselves can only work with their own debts. At the same time, the market for overdue debts continues to grow.
Therefore, by buying a portfolio of debts for pennies, you can make a good profit. At the same time, bankers will be able to relieve the credit institution of the financial burden. According to the rating agency Expert RA, in the same Russian Standard, the level of balance overdue debt in the retail loan portfolio is 42%, and the level of reserves for problem debt exceeds 85%.
Transferring “bad” debts to collectors is a great way to free up reserves and make some good money at the same time.
“Bad” debts aren't so bad
Collectors have plenty of work: the overdue debt market is breaking records this year. According to the online auction Debex, the total volume of overdue debt sold in the first half of the year was 69.7 billion rubles, 44% more than in the same period last year. At the same time, the volume of overdue debt will only grow in the near future. According to the Central Bank, from January to June, the volume of retail loan portfolios of banks increased by 8%. And bankers do not seem to be stopping there.
Now, after the curtailment of preferential mortgages, bankers have switched to car loans and loans for urgent needs. Surely everyone has seen SMS and letters with offers to quickly take out a “pre-approved” loan. And this is despite the fact that the real rate on unsecured consumer loans today is about 25% per annum. It is not surprising that the volume of overdue debt is growing. What is especially indicative is that mortgages are the leader among “bad” debts. According to the results of the first quarter, the portfolio of problematic mortgage loans grew by 5%, amounting to 66.8 billion rubles in monetary terms. Moreover, in April alone, “bad” mortgage debts increased by 3%.
This is an alarming factor. Usually, citizens, realizing that delays can lead to the loss of housing, try to pay off mortgage loans regularly. Massive payment failures indicate that an increasing number of citizens are having big problems with money.
Debts with excess profits
Against this background, creditors' entry into the collection market is becoming a win-win option. Now it doesn't matter how bad the debt portfolio is – you can make money on it in any case. In this regard, experts note the high competitiveness and marginality of the cession market (assignment of rights. – Ed.). If earlier pre-trial portfolios, that is, non-hopeless debts that can still be collected, were sold for 9-14% of the face value, today their value has jumped by 15-16%.
The number of creditors' requests to professional collectors is growing. In the first half of 2024, collectors were involved in collecting debts from more than 15 million debtors. According to Fedresurs, this is 32.6% more than in the same period last year. It is not surprising that in such a situation, bankers and microfinance organizations are trying to stake out a place for themselves in the market.
For borrowers, the arrival of bankers on the collection market means that from now on, an unpaid debt may become truly eternal.
While it was still possible to negotiate with the bank's collection service about loan restructuring, credit holidays and refinancing, collectors are not interested in any of these mechanisms at all. Having bought the debt for 10-15% of the face value and without incurring any additional expenses for reserving funds (as banks should do), collectors end up winning in any case, even if the debt is not paid at all. In the court case between the author of these lines and Sentinel Credit Management, collectors presented a chain of assignment agreements, in which at one stage the debt portfolio was even used to pay for a land plot.
Moreover, if the collectors themselves receive debts with a huge discount, then no discounts apply to debtors. Debts are collected from them in full, often even despite possible deferments. Thus, last fall, a collection agency from Yugra demanded that a loan be repaid from the family of a SVO participant, although mobilized people are subject to a grace period for repaying accounts payable. The problem was only resolved after contacting bailiffs. However, such cases will most likely continue in the future – the collectors got off with a small fine of 100 thousand rubles. By the way, according to bailiffs of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, in 2023 the number of complaints about the illegal behavior of debt collectors increased by 16%.
The collectors do not pay attention to the statute of limitations, demanding payment of the debt after 10-15 years. Moreover, they often collect such debts using a simplified procedure – by obtaining a court order from a justice of the peace.
Ready for anything
For a long time, Alfa-Bank had its own collectors in the form of Sentinel Credit Management. In October last year, information appeared that the bank was preparing to sell the agency. Sentinel is one of the oldest players in the collection market with a rather ambiguous reputation. In 2016, the agency was even excluded from the National Association of Professional Collection Agencies (NAPCA) for some time due to violation of the code of ethics when working with debtors. The company was also repeatedly fined by bailiffs. At one time, Sentinel was in the group of high-risk agencies on the website of the Federal Bailiff Service – that is, those that often violate the established rules for working with debtors.
