OREANDA-NEWS. May 17, 2012. Since year-start 2012 the lender has boosted the value and quality of its consumer credit portfolio

Uniastrum’s consumer credit portfolio expanded a healthy 11% year-to-date, outstripping its performance in this segment in the year-earlier period by a wide margin. This March and April the Bank saw a jump in personal loan issues, beating records since January 1, 2011, disbursing over Rb 300 mn under its Access program in April alone. Another positive is that anticipated defaults on the portfolio are currently well below the market average.

The robust growth and improved quality of Uniastrum’s retail lending portfolio are thanks first and foremost to the Bank’s deployment of new automated borrower appraisal and decision-making systems, as well as to its high-caliber product mix. In 2011-2012, for example, Uniastrum introduced five new credit scoring systems, which are product and segment specific and reduce risk profiling and decisioning processes to a matter of minutes.

The expansion of Uniastrum’s credit portfolio continues to be driven primarily by the high quality of the Bank’s Access personal loan option, an all-purpose facility which enables borrowers to take out up to Rb 600,000, repayable over a 3-year period. Interest rates start at 10.5% and are determined on a per-customer basis using risk-based pricing*. Along with the loan, customers automatically receive a Visa Electron card. Payment is by fixed monthly installments and can be made at any Uniastrum branch, via self-service kiosks, or using QIWI and Elecsnet payment terminals owned by the Bank’s partners. For more details visit http://www.uniastrum.ru/personal/crediting/customer/affordable/

“Today everything is in place to continue the uptrend in our retail operations, moving forward – namely, a strong, committed team, high-caliber products, and state-of-the-art technology,” notes Evgeny Romakov, Acting Chairman of Uniastrum’s Management Board. “Before the year is out we anticipate a considerable build in our consumer credit portfolio, which we intend to achieve by further honing our solutions in this segment and by launching new products.”