Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina was received by Vladimir Putin to brief him on the bank’s activities, presidential web page reported. She noted, among other facts, that “New mortgages increased by 50%, totaling RUR 3 tln.”
One of the main areas of the bank’s attention is microloan market. As the Governor said, “Five years ago, we had 4,500 microloan organizations, and now their number is down to 2,000. We have tightened our requirements to them. Microloan organizations should not engage in usury and take advantage of the fact that people with low incomes go and take out loans at high interest rates. It was decided to gradually reduce the maximum amount of debt that a person is allowed to have. At a certain point, individuals were allowed to have 4 debts, then recently, this number was reduced to 3. Since January 2019, it is down to 2.5, and in July it will be reduced to 2 and from January 2020, to 1.5. In other words, it reduces the flat-out amount of debt that a person can have with microfinance organizations.”