For the quarantine period to pawn shops to survive, had to significantly rethink their approach to accepting payments in the repayment of loans. If at the beginning of the year the share of noncash payments by borrowers in favor of the Lombards in the part of interest repayment and extension of loans accounted for less than 30%, by the end of may to 55%. Market participants believe that including at the expense of a pandemic, their customers tasted the convenience of remote repayment of debts through a personal account and intend to further develop the service, the maximum moving away from cash.The company “Mosgorlombard” (top-10 players in this market, one of the oldest — founded in 1924) provided the “y” data, according to which the beginning of the year significantly increased the volume of payments in the repayment of interest on loans and extending through the website of the company. If in January it was 13.5 percent in may and 27.5 per cent. The peak of these payments occurred in the most hard period of self-isolation — April, then their share exceeded 30.3% of. “On the one hand, a consequence of quarantine when people are not always able to come to the office and cash or cards through the payment terminal,— says member of the Board of Directors of “Mosgorlombard” Igor Plyshevski.— Having tasted the convenience of the service, many will use it after removing the restrictions.”However, to speak about the departure from cash pawn is not worth it, there are some customers who are willing to only use them, says Mr. Plyshevski. However, according to “Mosgorlombard” if earlier in the total amount of payments for interest and extension of loans, 70% were cash, now it is less than 35%.Other market participants confirm that the pandemic helped conservative customers of pawn shops to reconsider their views, but to talk about the turnaround yet. Thus, according to LLC “Fianit-Lombard” if in January in cash were paid on 30% of the borrowers (through the website — 7%, card at the office — 25%), now through the website pay, for 10% of customers, and the percentage of those who prefer to pay at the office, but the map has not changed. “It all depends on the clientele, but we are not waiting for turn to cash”,— said General Director of “Fianit-Lombard” Stanislav Boronin.Representatives of acquiring businesses see rising demand for Internet-acquiring side of the pawn. “For our clients, pawnshops, we can clearly see that the interest of the borrowers to repay the interest owed for the mortgaged property through remote channels has increased dramatically since the beginning of the pandemic,— said the commercial Director of Elecsnet Vladimir Karpenko.— For example, the turnover of the repayment of interest on loans, their extension to the web sites of the Lombards in April—may has increased five times compared to zocoronline January—February.” According to him, today Internet acquiring has become the most requested by pawnshops service. Numbe��in pawnshops, which ask for connect Internet acquiring has grown three times, said Vladimir Karpenko. “Against the backdrop of a pandemic, we see an increasing interest pawn shops to the Internet acquiring as a mechanism of minimization of personal contact between the employees of pawnshops and clients,— the Director “Card Standard” Maya Finished.— The change in customer behavior is gradual, as customers of pawnshops are quite conservative and, as a rule, are not the most financially literate part of the population”.To sum up the end of June is too early, however, despite the lifting of restrictions, the volume of online payments in pawn shops fell marginally, by only 5% compared with may and by 7% compared to April indicates Vladimir Karpenko. Thus, we can predict that switched to cashless payment by borrowers of pawnshops do not plan to return EN masse to cash payments, at least in the coming months, he concludes.Ksenia Dementieva
