Modern trends in the development of the alternative lending market in Russia

Abstract

The article analyzes new mechanisms for placing and attracting capital in Russia, and, primarily, alternative lending. Such types as fintech lending and crowdfunding are considered, which are a special mechanism for providing loans without a competent intermediary, where the responsibility for assessing the borrower's solvency falls directly on the lender. The research methodology is based on the use of graphical analysis methods, comparative analysis of empirical data, and the index method. The conducted analysis allowed the authors to identify the main trends in the development of the Russian crowdlending and fintech lending market: growing demand for online lending; development of embedded finance technologies; competition between fintech companies and traditional financial institutions on equal terms; growth in lending volumes in the crowdlending segment and the average loan amount in the context of an excess of creditors over the number of borrowers; as the crowdlending market develops, the level of its concentration increases; the main category of creditors in crowdlending are individuals, and borrowers are representatives of small and medium businesses. It is concluded that alternative lending methods are not able to displace traditional lending mechanisms to a significant extent, with fintech lending being able to compete with traditional lending institutions, while crowdfunding platforms are not so much competing with traditional financing methods, but are an alternative that is particularly attractive to SMEs as lenders.