Home Bank (formerly Home Credit Bank)

It is part of the Home Credit Group, one of the leaders in the consumer lending market in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as a number of Asian countries that have been operating in the market since 1997.

The main business of Home Credit Bank in Russia in May 2014 is consumer lending, but its development strategy provides for a course towards universalization.

Shareholders

As of May 2014, the bank has two main shareholders:

• majority Home Credit B.V. (86.62%; is a Dutch structure that is part of the Czech PPF group) and
• minority Emma Omega Ltd (13.37%).

Performance indicators

2023: Net profit growth by 701% to RUB 12.5 billion

Net profit of Home Bank for 2023 amounted to 12.5 billion rubles, and the return on equity of shareholders (without including subordinated debt) - 18%. The bank announced this to TAdviser on April 8, 2024.

For comparison, Home Bank's net profit at the end of 2022 was 1.56 billion, having decreased by 5 times compared to the same indicator in 2021. Such data in early April 2023 was shared by Kommersant with reference to the bank's statements. Thus, at the end of 2023, the increase in net profit in relation to the 2022 indicator amounted to 701%.

Net interest income for the reporting period reached 32.0 billion rubles, 18% higher than the same indicator in 2022 (27.2 billion rubles). Interest margin increased at the end of the year to 12.8% (11.1% at the end of 2022). Net commission income amounted to 7.3 billion rubles, and the indicator of expenses/income - 37.1%.

{{quote 'author = said Alexander Skabara, Chairman of the Board of Home Bank.|Our main task for 2023 was to maximize business efficiency. We focused on key areas for us - retail and POS lending, revised approaches to doing business: we actively developed the product line, invested in technologies, strengthened our positions in the online segment. The fact that our goal has been achieved is evidenced by financial results. The success of our development strategy was also confirmed by the growing interest in the bank's activities on the part of the market, including Sovcombank, which led to an agreement to unite our businesses, }}

The retail loan portfolio of Home Bank at the end of December amounted to 196 billion rubles. The POS portfolio grew by 40%, and its share - up to 22%. Cash loans decreased, but at the same time the portfolio of collateral loans grew to 12 billion rubles. As a result, the share of cash loans in the portfolio remained at 70%. The share of the card portfolio decreased to 8% due to the sale of the Svoboda card portfolio.

In 2023, Home Bank did not pay dividends. The adequacy of economic capital according to regulatory reporting was 15.5%.

In October 2023, the Analytical Credit Rating Agency (ACRA) confirmed Home Bank's credit rating at A (RU). In December 2023, the Expert RA rating agency raised Home Bank's creditworthiness rating to ruA-.

History

2024

Purchase by Sovcombank

In mid-February 2024, Sovcombank announced the purchase of HKF Bank. Credit institutions did not disclose the value of the transaction.

The press release of Sovcombank only says that the estimate of HKF-Bank amounted to 80% of its capital (excluding eternal bonds and dividends for 2023). According to the first deputy chairman of the board of Sovcombank Sergei Khotimsky, the bank is acquired at a "significant discount," while part of the amount - 15 billion rubles "with a small amount" - will be immediately paid for by Sovcombank shares. The other part will be paid in stages (in 2024-2025).

Sovcombank announced the purchase of HCF Bank

The deal will be split into two phases. At the first, Sovcombank will conduct an additional issue of its own shares in the amount of 5% of the authorized capital and, due to this, will acquire 51% of the shares of HKF Bank. At the second stage - until the end of 2024 - Sovcombank plans to acquire the remaining 49% of the shares of HKF Bank, which will be paid in cash in installments, is specified in a press release.

The main task of combining banks is to grow business while maintaining high standards of service for customers. As a result of the transaction, we will get savings in the costs of attracting customers, issuing a loan portfolio and attracting a portfolio of deposits, which will have a positive effect on the overall results of Sovcombank, "said Dmitry Gusev, Chairman of the Board of Sovcombank.

According to him, the structure of the transaction will allow, with a minimum volume of additional issue, to maintain the dividend policy and increase earnings per share.

Sovcombank adds that after the closure of the transaction (scheduled for the end of 2024), the number of active retail clients of the credit institution will grow by 50% - to 9 million, and retail and deposit portfolios - by 25% and 20% to 915 billion and up to 945 billion rubles, respectively.^[1]

Allocation of IT direction to HomeTech

On January 10, 2024, Home Bank announced TAdviser the separation IT of a separate company called. "HomeTech" According to representatives, the bank IT company team has already started work and managed to become the owner of the status. participant Skolkovo Home Bank itself also joined the number of Skolkovo partners (Group). ВЭБ.РФ More. here

2023

Placement of the program on the BI.Zone Bug bounty site

Home Bank invites independent cybersecurity researchers registered on the BI.Zone Bug Bounty platform to check the security of their information systems. The public program covers the domains of home.bank, homecredit.ru, as well as the Internet bank and mobile application. The amount of remuneration depends on the criticality of the discovered vulnerabilities and can reach 200,000 rubles. The bank announced this on November 2, 2023. Read more here.

Name change to "Home Bank"

In June 203, Home Credit Bank announced a name change. The new name is "Home Bank." The rebranding took place in order to duplicate the brand of its former shareholder - Czech Home Credit B.V., a source close to the credit institution told RBC.

The bank will officially be called exactly as its customers have always informally called it: Home Bank. The bank retains its corporate colors, but now the name will be written in Cyrillic, - said in "Home Bank."

Sale of Svoboda installment card portfolio to Sovcombank

In February 2023, it was announced that Sovcombank was buying a portfolio of Liberty installment cards from Home Credit Bank, which is used by about a million customers. Earlier in June 2020, Sovcombank bought a portfolio of Conscience cards from the Qiwi group. Thus, only one installment card remained in the card market.

2022

Profit drop by 5 times - up to 1.56 billion rubles

Net profit of Home Credit Bank in 2022 collapsed 5 times - to 1.56 billion rubles from 7.75 billion rubles a year earlier. Such data appear in the statements that the credit institution disclosed in early April 2023.

It follows from these materials that Home Credit's net interest income after the creation of reserves (they increased 2.1 times, exceeding 18 billion rubles) in 2022 decreased 4.1 times, to 4.3 billion rubles, and commission income - by almost 10%, to 6.5 billion rubles. The capital of HKF-Bank decreased by 12.6%, falling below the level of 50 billion rubles. Assets of the credit institution decreased by 9.1%, to 262.7 billion rubles; liabilities - by 8.3%, up to 213 billion rubles.

The outflow of retail funds - deposits of individuals (including individual entrepreneurs) decreased by 24.5 billion rubles, to 165.1 billion rubles - was partially compensated by an increase in funds from banks, which increased balances in accounts with a credit institution by 50.9 times, to more than 6 billion rubles.

The HKF Bank clarified that there were no deals on the sale of portfolios in 2022. This may mean that the loan portfolio was extinguished naturally. At the same time, the deal to sell the portfolio of installment cards to Sovcombank does not affect the results of last year, it occupied 5% in the portfolio of HKF Bank, the Kommersant newspaper notes.

The new strategy of the bank "focuses on priority banking products - cash loans and POS loans - and high-quality client service," Alexander Skabara, chairman of the board of HKF Bank, told the newspaper.

Its implementation has already brought a clear result: the issuance of priority credit products at the end of 2022 exceeded the values ​ ​ of the corresponding period in 2021, he added.[2]

Sale of stake in Home Credit Bank Kazakhstan

At the end of December 2022, the Russian Home Credit (HKF-Bank) announced the withdrawal from the shareholders of the Kazakhstani Home Credit Bank. A 25% stake in the credit institution was bought by Czech businessman Jiri Schmeitz, who heads the PPF Group. As a result, his share in Home Credit Bank Kazakhstan rose to 34.7%. Read more here.

Alexander Skabara - the new board of Home Credit Bank

On July 15, 2022, Alexander Skabara officially took office as chairman of the board of Home Credit Bank. Read more here.

Alexander Antonenko leaves the post of chairman of the board after 3 months of work

In July 2022, Alexander Antonenko quit after three months of work. For the further development of Home Credit in the role of acting, and soon - the board will be responsible for the former head of the Conscience project.

Becoming an IT Company

Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation It was decided to grant To bank Home Credit state Accreditation as an organization operating in the field. information technology The bank announced this on July 7, 2022.

The bank successfully uses SAFe in almost all areas of activity and creates digital partnerships with representatives. Russian retail

This status will give our employees the opportunity to use various advantages. Already in July 2022, bank employees - graduates of technical universities will be able to count on a deferral from the army. In the future, this status will allow the bank and its employees to count on state benefits.

Reduction of share in Kazakhstan subsidiary bank from 100% to 25.0014%

On May 24, 2022, it became known that the Russian HKF Bank reduced its stake in the Kazakhstan subsidiary bank from 100% to 25.0014%, the Russian credit institution said in a statement.

PPF Group and Home Credit in mid-May announced the conclusion of an agreement to sell their banking assets and subsidiaries in Russia to a group of Russian individual investors led by the former head of RTS Ivan Tyryshkin.

It was assumed that as part of the transaction, the Kazakhstani bank Home Credit (a subsidiary of the Russian HKF Bank) will be sold to shareholders and some top managers of PPF and Home Credit.

Sale of a Russian bank to a group of investors led by Ivan Taryshkin

On May 17, 2022, it became known about the sale of the Russian Home Credit business to a group of local individual investors led by co-founder and chairman of the board of directors of St. Petersburg Exchange Ivan Tyryshkin (since the end of June it has been under British sanctions). 49.5% of the shares of the Russian HKF Bank (Home Credit and Finance Bank LLC) were transferred to the Group.

Ivan Taryshkin received 9.91% of the bank and other group companies, his partners Ibrahim Zagidulin, Elena Martynenko, Violetta Chaika, Dmitry Chemendryakov - 9.9% each. The Home Credit group remained at 50.49%. Another 1% of the shares were received by Avigdor Yardeni. The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

In August 2022, the Czech Home Credit Group withdrew from the capital of HKF Bank, transferring the remaining 49.5% stake to it. According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, this share has been owned by the Russian bank since August 24, 2022.

Earlier, Ivan Tyryshkin explained that the deal to acquire a stake in the Russian HKF Bank is only the first stage of the global transaction. Thus, by the end of August, new investors consolidated 100% of the bank's shares.

Ivan Tyryshkin stood at the origins of "modern financial markets in Russia" as CEO of the RTS Stock Exchange, invested in a number of "well-known fintech companies in Russia," and now is the chairman of the board of directors of "one of the leading publicly traded fintech platforms in the region."

In turn, Kazakhstan's Home Credit Bank (a subsidiary of HKF Bank) will be sold to shareholders and some top managers of PPF Group and Home Credit Group, the statement said.

The deal will be streamlined and structured to ensure continuity for Home Credit employees and customers in Russia and Kazakhstan, added the Czech company PPF Group, which includes Home Credit Bank.

By May 2022, PPF Group operates in 25 countries, owns assets in various sectors (including financial services, telecommunications, media, biotechnology, real estate and engineering) worth 40.3 billion euros.

Home Credit's subsidiary in Russia is HKF Bank (Home Credit Bank), which has been operating under this brand since 2002. The customer base of the bank has more than 36 million people, it is one of the 40 largest banks in Russia.

Earlier, the Vedomosti newspaper, citing sources, wrote that PPF Group is looking for a buyer for its Russian bank Home Credit. The decision was made at the PPF group level after the death of its founder Peter Kellner, who died in March 2021 in a helicopter crash. Vedomosti and Frank Media learned about the interest in the deal of the Hungarian OTP Group, which in Russia owns a subsidiary of OTP Bank and the microfinance company OTP Finance^[3]

Appointment of Alexander Antonenko as Chairman of the Board of Home Credit Bank

On April 6, 2022, Home Credit Bank informed TAdviser of the appointment of Alexander Antonenko as Chairman of the Board. In this post, Alexander replaced Dmitry Peshnev-Podolsky, who decided to continue his career outside Home Credit Bank. Read more here.

AFK Sistema refuses to buy a bank

On February 10, 2022, it became known that the structures of AFK Sistema stopped negotiations on the purchase of Home Credit Bank, as they went to no avail. The parties could not agree on the price, the bank is no longer for sale.

The bank's management has notified leading employees that the asset has not yet been sold and will develop within the structure of the Czech PPF group, RBC writes, citing its own source in the organization. There is no talk of selling Home Credit now and the bank is working on a business strategy for a year, the publication claims, citing another interlocutor.

Information about the intention to acquire Home Credit appeared in January. The structures were interested in both buying a Russian bank and its subsidiary in Kazakhstan. But, besides the fact that the parties could not agree on the price, there was no consensus in the holding whether it should enter the Kazakh market in the current conditions.

This is due to mass protests in the country at the beginning of the year, against the background of which the redistribution of power began, Frank Media points out. According to the publication, the heirs of the founder of PPF Group Peter Kellner, who died in March 2021, decided not to change the structure of the group.

Earlier, the Company magazine reported that the structures of AFK Sistema Vladimir Yevtushenkov could pay over 1 billion euros for Home Credit Bank, which is owned by the Czech PPF Group. It was put up for sale after the death in 2021 of the founder of PPF Group, Czech billionaire Peter Kellner. The bank was also claimed by the Hungarian OTP Group with the Russian OTP Bank.

2021

Robbery of a bank branch in the Urals for 10 million rubles

In December 2021, Home Credit Bank was robbed in the Urals. The offender shot into the air and claimed 10 million rubles.

Organizational Change Plans

On April 22, 2021, it became known that HKF-Bank, one of the players in the consumer lending market, is changing the organizational structure and updating the team. It is expected that the transformation will allow the bank to optimize management processes in the context of fierce competition in the banking market.

Instead of traditional large business blocks - the POS lending block and the card business block, deposits, cash loans, online services and marketing - HKF Bank will create three additional ones that will focus on the main directions of the bank's development. These will be blocks of daily banking, the development of digital partnerships and consumer lending, several sources told the bank. According to them, the bank sent information to employees about the relevant changes.

The bank's press service confirmed these changes, noting that "at a certain stage the old structure solved its problems, but the business began to grow." For example, in the POS segment (loans for the purchase of goods trade in networks) there was a separate direction Banking as a Service (BaaS, the provision financial of services for -, etc., Internetretailers social networks including under their brand), explained the transformation in the bank. In addition, the structures of online business and marketing have grown.

To manage them more efficiently, it was decided to form three business units. This will allow you to better focus on the tasks set, simplify management processes and interaction of divisions, which means it will improve the time to market indicator for new services, products and services, - explained in HKF-Bank.

In the organizational structure being created, the first of the three key blocks will develop debit cards, transaction business, deposits, investment retail products and, insurance as well as mobile application and. Internet bank The second will build a digital financial platform based on partnerships with manufacturers, retail and financial institutions. These blocks will be headed by the current deputy chairmen Artem Aleshkin Alexander Antonenko and, accordingly. The third block is the development of credit products: POS loans, non-targeted cash loans, secured consumer loans, credit cards and installment cards. This direction will be headed by, Alexander Vasiliev who had previously served as deputy chairman of the board for a long time. He also OTP-bank joined the team of HKF-Bank as the head of the risk block, Alexey Ashurkov who previously headed the risk block of international business [ Sberbank^[4]

Creating a Service Ecosystem

At the end of February 2021, it became known about the creation by Home Credit Bank of its own ecosystem of services, similar to that of, for example, Sberbank or Tinkoff.

As they write Sheets"" with reference to the message "Home Loan," the bank has submitted Rospatent many applications for trademark registration. Among them are HomeTV (TV service), HomeGo and HomeDrive (), software as well as trademarks for products in the areas of investment and brokerage business, insurance, leasing and travel.

Also, the credit institution registers HomeShop and HomeMarket, which, according to the publication, may become the basis for a new online trading platform or the development of an installment sale service. Attention was also drawn to the application for registration of the KotoDog brand, the applicant for which was a legal entity of the Home Credit Insurance Bank.

The newspaper notes that the new brands do not have the word "credit," as in the Home Bank brand registered back in January 2020 and its English-language version of Home Bank. Thus, the bank is probably trying to become more universal in the eyes of customers - just as Sberbank did, turning into Sberbank and offering dozens of different services and products that formed its ecosystem.

Home Credit has its own marketplace, Installment Goods. It sells more than 100 thousand goods of bank partners in the categories of "household appliances," "computer equipment," "phones," "furniture," etc. (by the end of February 2021). The bank also created a brokerage platform "Vsegda.Da," connecting customers, stores and banks. The chairman of the board of Home Credit Dmitry Peshnev-Podolsky told Frank Media through the press service that the bank will face a large-scale transformation.

Transformation both in terms of readiness for faster growth rates and in terms of launching new business lines relevant to the digital economy, he said.[5][6][7][8][9][10]

Moving employees to a permanent hybrid mode of operation

Bank Home Credit on January 27, 2021 announced the transfer of employees to a permanent hybrid mode of operation. We are talking about thousands of specialists from the head office in Moscow and call centers in Obninsk, Tomsk and Volgograd. People will constantly combine remote work and work in the office.

The format of work will be determined in each unit, taking into account the opinion of the employees themselves. For example, in the call center, about a quarter will switch to a completely remote mode, about half will combine remote and office. Some of the people, these are mainly new employees, will work only from the office. Gradually, people from the third group will move to the first and second.

Hybrid mode is the format that dictates reality. It is important for everyone: both those who already work in the bank and those who are just eyeing us as an employer. We in Houma are evaluating the work on its effectiveness. Therefore, if an employee works better from home, we meet him halfway, - commented Dmitry Peshnev-Podolsky, Chairman of the Board of Home Credit Bank.

Home Credit Bank announced the transition to hybrid mode in the summer of 2020. After six months of working in this mode in a test format, the bank decided to make it permanent. Despite remote work, the efficiency of employees remained high, and the bank managed to achieve all the planned indicators.

For January 2021, Home Credit is closely engaged in the transition to a permanent hybrid regime, which affects the work of the bank at different levels. This is a different level of corporate culture, with executives and subordinates working with high trust in each other and minimal control. In addition, in these conditions, it is necessary to develop various formats for holding meetings and organizing business processes. In general, the bank will face large-scale investments in the development of digital infrastructure, security and health of customers and employees. A large cross-functional team is working on this.

At the same time, we do not plan to abandon the office. But his appointment will change. In the changed format, it will become a space for uniting like-minded people. There will be coworking spaces, coffee shops, sports grounds. People will be able to meet, communicate, exchange ideas. We will create a space in which everyone can prove themselves, "said Dmitry Peshnev-Podolsky.

2020

Dmitry Peshnev-Podolsky will replace Yuri Andresov as chairman of the bank's board

(Home Home Credit Group B.V. Credit Group), an international financial holding operating in the Central, Eastern and Europe , Asia on October 30, 2020, announced the appointment of the head of business of Home Credit Group in. Russia Dmitry Peshnev-Podolsky Appointed Chief Executive Officer of Home Credit Bank. After agreeing on his candidacy, he CENTRAL BANK will take over as chairman of the bank's board.

At the same time, Yuri Andresov will become chairman of the Advisory Board of Home Credit Bank (Chairman of Advisory Board). To ensure continuity and business continuity for the transition period, Yuri will also remain chairman of the bank's board.

Start using Sberbank's instant transfer system

At the end of September 2020, it became known about the decision of Home Credit Bank to connect to the Sberbank instant transfer system by phone number, thereby joining other credit institutions, including Tinkoff, Sovkom and SDM. Read more here.

Online meeting for two thousand employees

Bank Home Credit on July 13, 2020 announced the annual meeting online. If 300 managers took part in it earlier, then this format allowed more than two thousand employees from 70 Russian cities to join the discussion. Some speakers and attendees joined the meeting from other countries.

In March 2020, in less than two weeks, the entire back office of Home Credit Bank in Moscow and the regions, as well as all its call centers in Obninsk, Tomsk and Volgograd, switched to remote operation.

When we went to the remote, it was a new experience for us. We now know that the bank operates equally efficiently both in the office and online. And we will practice both of these approaches. Changes have become faster, tasks are more difficult. But one of the main competencies inherent in our bank is the ability to respond flexibly to the situation and continue to consistently move towards achieving our goals, "said Yuri Andresov, Chairman of the Board of Home Credit Bank.

Deputy Chairman of the Board Artem Aleshkin shared the results and plans for the development of online business and cards, director of the regional banking network Timofey Sharov spoke about the organization of work in the regions, Deputy Chairman of the Board Alexander Antonenko - about the bank's projects in the field of b2b. The speech of Vice President for Human Resources Galina Vaisband was dedicated to people and relationships - she shared her personal experience of living in self-isolation.

In the panel discussion "Superplasticity. New World and New Us "was attended by Yuri Andresov and members of the bank's supervisory board.

The special guest of the event was the President of the Higher School of Methodology Andrei Kurpatov. He told how people adapt to digital reality, what problems they have, and how to confront these challenges.

A feature of the event was its interactive format. Speakers spoke and answered questions in real time. Employees commented on what was happening in the chat, polls were held, and voted.

This meeting was a step for us in building open and transparent relations in the company. Both in relatively calm and in times of crisis, the main value is human relations, openness, mutual understanding and the best team result, - commented Yuri Andresov.

Hybrid Mode Transition Plan

As the epidemiological situation improves, Home Credit Bank will transfer employees of the head office, regional offices and call centers to a hybrid mode of operation. This means that some of the employees will return to the office, some will work from home. When choosing the operating mode, the wishes of the employees themselves will be taken into account. The bank announced this on June 30, 2020.

More than three months of remote work have shown that our bank works equally efficiently in offices and "from home." Therefore, we decided to flexibly approach the situation and use both of these methods, taking into account the work tasks and individual wishes of employees, - commented Yuri Andresov, Chairman of the Board of Home Credit Bank.

In March 2020, in less than two weeks, the entire back office of Home Credit Bank in Moscow and the regions, as well as all its call centers in Obninsk, Tomsk and Volgograd, were transferred to a remote mode of operation. This is about five thousand people. Bank branches worked as usual. Some of the credit specialists from stores closed due to the pandemic were temporarily transferred to work in the bank's call centers.

At the end of July 2020, the remote mode of operation remains. The hybrid regime will be introduced gradually as the epidemiological situation further improves.

2019

New Chief information officer - Aleksandr Kalinovsky

In June 2019, Alexander Kalinovsky was appointed Information Technology Director of Home Credit Bank. Read more here.

Personal data of customers got into the public domain

On June 9, 2019, it became known about the leakage of data from 900 thousand customers of Russian banks. Passport data, phone numbers, places of residence and work of citizens of the Russian Federation were in the public domain.

As Kommersant writes with reference to the DeviceLock service, customers of Alfa Bank, OTP Bank and HCF Bank, as well as about 500 employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and 40 people from the FSB, were injured. Read more here.

2018: The first loan in Russia with remote identification

In mid-July 2018 , Home Credit Bank announced the issuance of the first loan in Russia using remote identification. The Russians were able to remotely use banking products and services after the launch of a single biometric system.

At the first stage, Home Credit issues online loans for the purchase of goods using completely remote identification of the client. In the future, the bank is going to issue most of its other products in the same way.

It is noted that the online identification of the first client took less than a minute. After that, he was able to remotely sign an agreement on obtaining a POS loan and purchase a vacuum cleaner in the online store of Home Credit Bank's partner, the Russian representative office of Samsung.

In order not to undergo full-time identification in banks, customers need to once provide their biometric data (voice and image of faces), which will be stored in a single system. Rostelecom provides the collection, processing and storage of biometric data, as well as checking their compliance with the initially submitted biometric samples. The results of the check are transmitted to banks for remote identification of citizens when opening accounts.

After registration in a single biometric system, a citizen will be able to remotely receive the services of any bank working with the system. The client just needs to enter the login/password from the ESIA and pronounce a short test phrase generated by the system, looking into the camera of a smartphone or computer.

By July 17, 2018, Home Credit accepts biometric information from customers at its offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Kazan. In a short time, it is planned to increase the number of such branches 80, and by the end of 2019 it will be possible to pass biometrics in all branches of the bank, it said.^[11]

2017

TAdviser interview: Deputy Chairman of the Board of Home Credit Bank Sergey Shcherbakov - about AI, Big Data, Agile and other IT priorities of the bank

Sergey Shcherbakov, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Home Credit Bank, who oversees the IT unit at the company, spoke in an interview with TAdviser in December 2017 about the bank's technological priorities and projects, the introduction of Agile practices and shared his opinion on how much fintechs pose a threat to the banking sector. Read more here.

The volume of loans issued through POS-online exceeded 1 billion rubles

The volume of loans issued for goods through POS-online technology at Home Credit Bank exceeded 1 billion rubles, which amounted to 3.5% of the total volume of POS loans issued by the bank. About 80% of online loans are issued without down payment or overpayment, Home Credit reported on October 19, 2017.

Most often, household appliances and mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) were taken on credit, audio and video equipment in third place. The most popular household appliances are washing machines, refrigerators, microwave ovens and stoves. And from video and audio equipment, most of the loans were taken on TVs.

POS-online is a technology developed by Home Credit Bank for issuing loans on a simplified application via the Internet. The first POS online loans were issued in the Eldorado online store in the summer of 2016. As of October 2017, the bank's main partners in this project include Eldorado, M.Video, DNS and other large online stores.

When applying for a loan via POS-online, in most cases the client needs to fill out only 5 fields. It takes the bank 40 seconds to fully evaluate a short application. Base customers can sign an agreement via SMS and receive a loan completely remotely.

According to Artem Aleshkin, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Home Credit Bank, the goal of the financial institution is to offer partners such an online lending technology in which customers do not have to fill out questionnaires at all.

Assets - 241.5 billion rubles, capital - 51.1 billion rubles

As of August 2017, Home Credit Bank ranks 36th in assets (241.5 billion rubles) and 24th in capital (51.1 billion rubles) in the ranking банки.ру.

Logo change

In the summer of 2017, Home Credit Bank changed its logo. The now outdated logo has been used by the bank since 2002, since Home Credit Group entered the Russian market:

2014

Rumors about the beginning of preparations for the sale of the bank

In May 2014, it became known that Home Credit Bank would be preparing for sale - this decision was made at a meeting of the board of directors of a credit institution. This was reported to Izvestia by two sources in the bank. Experts estimate Home Credit at about $1 billion and explain the sale by the desire of shareholders to get rid of the asset at the peak of its development.

According to the interlocutors, at the moment only a fundamental decision has been made, and the details - such as the size of the sold stake, the target price of the transaction - have not been determined. There is a message on the disclosure server about the meeting of the board of directors, but the details of the agenda were not indicated in it.

The press service of Home Credit Bank denied information about the sale of a credit institution.

- The intentions of Home Credit shareholders to develop HKF-Bank in the long term as an integral part of the Russian banking system remain unchanged, the press service said. - Any rumors about the alleged impending sale of the bank are absolutely devoid of grounds^[12]

.

• The

  Board of Directors of Home Credit Bank did not discuss any intentions regarding the sale of our Russian bank, Jiri Schmeitz, CEO of Home Credit and one of the beneficiaries of Home Credit B.V., said in a statement. that the legislative measures currently being considered by the State Duma and aimed at preventing and severely punishing the initiators of false reports about participants in the banking market will soon put a barrier to unreasonable publications of this kind.

However, Izvestia sources insist that the bank is being prepared for sale - more expensive than now, the bank is unlikely to be sold in the coming years. The conditions for retail lending are deteriorating, as well as the quality of servicing loans by the population.

According to the surveyed experts, the owners of the bank have doubts about how to develop the business further, since the peak of consumer lending is coming to naught - this is facilitated by the actions of the regulator to cool the market, and the growing debt burden of Russians (now there are an average of two loans for each working Russian, and recently the Central Bank recorded a record delay of 13.3% since 2010). Since March 1, 2013, the Central Bank has doubled the minimum reserves for unsecured retail lending. Requirements for reserves for unfinished consumer loans increased from 1 to 2%. For loans with delay up to 30 days - from 3 to 6%. For unsecured consumer loans with delays over 360 days, a 100% reserve is now being formed. Significant amounts were withdrawn from the turnover of banks in this way.

In addition, since July 1, 2013, risk ratios for loans with a rate of 25% per annum have been increased - the maximum ratio for such loans is 2. In 2014, the Central Bank is expected to take even tougher measures against unsecured loans. If the bank occupies the population at 60% or more, then for it the coefficient will increase from 2 to 6, and for loans whose total value exceeds 45% - from 1.7 to 3. If a credit institution does not want to cut rates in order to remove the overwhelming burden of payments from borrowers, then it will have to find an opportunity to increase capital.

"Working in

the retail business is more and more difficult for a number of players of this niche," comments Karina Artemyeva, head of the analytical department of the National Rating Agency. - Tightening of the Central Bank's requirements for reservation in the segment, pressure on capital as a result of this, unprofitability of a number of retail banks, an increase in delinquency in the retail segment and a deterioration in the credit discipline of retail borrowers - all these factors may affect the decision to sell the business.

The intensive development model that allowed Home Credit to develop and stay in the top of the retail market is fading. According to the 101st form, which is published by the Central Bank, private loans in Home Credit from May 2013 to May 2014 decreased by 13.15 billion rubles, private deposits decreased by 4.87 billion rubles. Overdue debt increased by 15.43 billion rubles and reached 18.76% of the loan portfolio.

- The decision to sell the business of Home Credit Bank in Russia, which is in the top 30, can be considered quite unexpected only at first glance, - said Alexander Belyakov, President of Lionstone Investment Services Ltd. - The facts suggest the opposite: the bank's profit fell sharply (in the IV quarter of 2013, earnings amounted to only 1.7 billion rubles - four times less than in the same period in 2012), Fitch agency worsened the forecast for the bank's ratings, a decision was made to close more than 200 offices (8% of the retail network), the number of loans issued decreased due to a change in the bank's policy. After the rapid growth that was observed in 2007-2008, the bank, one might say, at its peak.

According to the board of directors of SDM Bank Maxim Solntsev, the decision of Home Credit shareholders suggests that the bank with a high degree of probability will not achieve the previous growth rates of the loan portfolio. Accordingly, shareholders are considering other opportunities to maximize profits from their asset, Solntsev points out.

"It

can be noted that starting from the second half of 2013, the bank stopped increasing its retail loan portfolio, the bank's assets began to gradually decline, and information about the bank's policy in the field of cost reduction appeared in the media," says Mikhail Gonopolsky, director of the Center for Macroeconomic Forecasting and Investment Strategy of Binbank. - Thus, at least on indirect grounds, it can be noted that the bank's exchange rate has changed, perhaps the management's view on the dynamics of retail lending in Russia in the coming years and the profitability of this business has changed due to changing macroeconomic conditions.

Alexei Koltyshev, director of the financial and analytical department of the Security Council of the Bank, suggests that, perhaps, it was not without political nuances: now is just the most unfavorable time for additional investments by the Czech international group in the Russian bank - money is needed to fulfill the Central Bank's reservation requirements.

Also, Izvestia's interlocutors emphasize that after the banking microcrism, the flow of clients to state-owned banks has intensified and Home Credit cannot withstand competition. According to a number of bankers, it would be more interesting for the owners to completely withdraw from the asset, but they do not exclude other forms - for example, combining Home Credit with another bank based on loan portfolios.

- The amount of the transaction will be clear after the pre-sale audit, - says Solntsev. - Probably, the bank can be sold for one capital [44.7 billion rubles]. The main problem that will face the shareholders is the search for a buyer.

- The market price of the bank is now about 0.6-0.7 capital, that is, about $1 billion, ideally for owners it would be not cheaper than capital, that is, in the region of $1.5 billion, but the situation in the industry is quite difficult, it is unlikely that it will be possible to find a buyer at such a price, - said Ilya Balakirev, chief analyst at UFS Investment Company.

Market participants among the possible applicants for the purchase of Home Credit are called Sberbank. But it can be any other player who is ready to carry the risks of retail, they point out.

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  Credit can be bought by banks to expand its loan portfolio, says Sergey Nekrasov, an analyst at MFX Broker. - The main problem when selling for both the buyer and the bank's shareholders is the correct assessment. Now it is not easy to assess the quality of the loan portfolio, which is based on risky consumer lending.

Assets - 313.3 billion rubles, capital - 44.7 billion rubles

As of the first quarter of 2014, Home Credit Bank ranks 23rd in assets (313.3 billion) rubles and 15th in capital (44.7 billion) in the ranking. "Interfax

2008

As of September 30, 2008, the bank's share in the commodity lending market amounted to 24%, the share in the credit card market - 11%. The bank's products are presented in more than 33 thousand partner stores in 1200 cities of Russia. The Bank's regional network consists of 93 representative offices, 147 offices and 4 branches in Russia as of September 30, 2008.

Notes