Summer Bank OJSC is a subsidiary of VTB 24 operating in the mass consumer lending segment. The bank makes minimum requirements for borrowers and offers a wide range of products and services.
History
In 1990, the Bezhitsa Bank credit institution appeared in Bryansk. The largest enterprises of the city used its services, gradually it began to develop the market of mortgages and consumer loans. In 2005, the Federal Property Management Agency joined in the ownership of the organization’s capital, and in 2006, the Bank of Moscow, which within three years brought its stake to above 95%. In 2011, the capital's financial institution was absorbed by VTB Group and since then has been its subsidiary.
In April 2012, almost 100% of the shares (a very small part remained with the minority shareholder) of Bezhitsa Bank already belonged to VTB 24, and Dmitry Rudenko, previously working as deputy chairman of Russian Standard, became the head of the board. He had tremendous experience in the consumer lending market (including the development of quite new POS loans for Russia - at points of sale when purchasing goods). Other senior managers of the Russian Standard also entered the senior management team of the financial structure. In October 2012, Bezhitsa Bank renamed and rebranded, changing its name. That is how Summer Bank appeared. Moscow became the city where the organization’s central office is located.
Business model
Now “Summer Bank” is an institution specializing in the so-called mass retail segment of the consumer lending market. Among the main products - the issuance of loans in express form (including through applications in retail chains), in cash or by card. Numerous credit and cash divisions have been opened all over the country, a new national brand has appeared - “Summer Bank”, reviews of which are available on all thematic online portals. Historically, the first trading organizations to sign partnership agreements with the VTB 24 subsidiary were DNS (selling digital equipment) and Elmeh (selling fur products). “Summer Bank” loan programs are designed to facilitate the purchase of goods and payment for services for people with low solvency (or limited at the time of purchase). The issuance of loans is extremely simplified - you need a minimum of documents, the decision is made quickly. But this business model is supported by very high rates - at least 29.9% per annum (relative to POS loans and car loans).
Asset Structure and Priorities
Despite the rapid growth in popularity in the country, “Summer Bank”, in fact, remains a “startup”. The structure of the institution's liabilities is represented only by the internal budget, assets - in the form of interbank loans, corporate accounts in a specialized account with the Central Bank of Russia. About half of Summer Bank’s assets are involved in financing infrastructure, opening new offices in the country, and ensuring informatization processes. Thanks to effective investment, the bank was able to gain confidence in customers within a fairly short period of time. This is a young but proven financial institution that offers borrowers favorable rates and a good level of service, backed up by staff qualifications. The target group of borrowers of Summer Bank is a married resident of the administrative center of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation with an income of 20 thousand rubles and working in a small organization. The institution focuses on repeat customers, offering them profitable options.
Cash loans
When a new brand was created in the face of OJSC Summer Bank, the management of VTB 24 planned to concentrate the institution's work in those segments where the parent structure does not conduct business - the mass services segment for the population. Therefore, the conditions for issuing loans from the new bank are much simplified. The flagship product of the Summer Bank brand is a cash loan. As a rule, these are Summer-Money express loans, the decision on which is made in a few minutes (the larger the amount, the longer). The borrower needs to show only the passport (if the amount is up to 100 thousand, if more - other documents will be required).
The rate for this product line is 29.9-39.9%, which corresponds to the average figures for the market. At the same time, Summer Bank offers a very special product, an analogue of which is not often found in other financial organizations: soft loans for reliable borrowers at an actual rate of 19.9% per annum. That is, upon completion of payments on the loan to the borrower, the difference is returned, as if he paid the specified percentage. Partial or full repayment is allowed, depositing money to the account is carried out according to the annuity scheme. There is a minimum payment - its size depends on the amount of the loan.
Additional services
Summer Bank, reviews of which are largely determined by the quality of additional services, can offer the borrower a number of options that are harmoniously combined with the main banking products. Among them, for example, is the “I miss payment” service: the client can allow a one-time delay in payment once a year, and no sanctions are provided for this (except that the loan term will move forward a month). The “Change payment date” option is interesting: if a person does not have time to make a planned payment, then he can postpone the payment date by 15 days. The service costs 90 rubles.
There is a service called “Reducing Payment”, which allows you to restructure the loan a little: once during the time of using the loan you can reduce the contributions of mandatory payments by increasing the total loan term. Summer Bank also has a product such as the Insurance Cover Program - a policy in case of difficulties in repaying loans. The price of the service is 0.74% of the size of the loan, the charge is debited from the account monthly.
Features of loans
“Summer Bank”, in which a cash loan is available with a minimum of documents, is characterized by exceptional transparency of loan conditions. What the client sees in the contract is what he pays, without any inscriptions in small print. It is proposed to arrange insurance when applying for a loan voluntarily, unlike competing banks, where it is sometimes imposed. Quick decision-making on applications is due to the perfect system of scoring and solvency assessment. Therefore, this credit institution does not need a large number of documents, and money is often issued on the day of application.
A very important factor - the infrastructure of “Summer Bank” is integrated with that of VTB 24, so all ATMs and offices of the latter institution are at the disposal of “summer” customers. In principle, there are plenty of repayment opportunities for borrowers - in offices, through terminals, money transfer systems. Also, “Summer Bank” has debugged procedures for remote communication with customers: for example, if you need to use one of the services described above, you just need to call the institution’s call center, it’s not necessary to go to the office. Hot line “Summer Bank” is always ready to communicate with borrowers.
Comfort for the customer
Despite the fact that giving the interiors of offices shades of ease and friendliness is a trend for almost all Russian credit organizations, Summer Bank is distinguished by its “seasonal” concept, based on its name, of the warmth of tones, creating an atmosphere of comfort in your own premises. Apart from the beautiful design, the very organization of the bank’s offices is pleasing: all customer service centers work every day, they have payment terminals. The positive word in the name possessed by the bank - summer also attracts people. Institutional addresses are easily found in most city online directories.
As mentioned above, without fees and interest, you can deposit money for a loan through VTB 24 infrastructure, elements of which are present in abundance in most cities. The concept of respect and customer friendliness is emphasized by the management of the Summer Bank brand. Office hours are not the only criterion for borrower comfort, however. To some extent, part of the friendliness model is loyalty in assessing the solvency of clients - pensioners and students can get a loan at this institution, to whom the attitude in other financial organizations (including VTB 24) is often not the most trusting. The most important advantage that Summer Bank has is that the loan application is considered very quickly.
Loans through third-party banks
Summer Bank is trying to experiment - in particular, through the sale of its loan products through other partner institutions. According to the information in the specialized media, one of them is “Let's Go!” Bank, which is already issuing loans according to the “Summer” standards and using software from the “daughter” of VTB 24. Experts believe that we are talking about bank franchising here - until now little-known in Russia form of interaction of financial institutions. The management of the organization believes that such cooperation helps to analyze the market in regions in which the brand does not yet have offices. At the same time, let's go! In fact, he shares with his partner new customers, trying to “break in” new models of their own products. Among experts there is also a critical assessment of the interaction of two credit organizations: the franchisor may suffer losses associated with the image. Selling products from another bank may not be clear to customers. Although, as experts admit, “Let's go!” receives a guaranteed commission income for zero credit risks.
Success in the language of numbers
Summer Bank is actively exploring the Russian consumer loan market. According to the estimates of the institution’s experts, the real “borrowing” of the Russian population in this segment, despite a lot of pessimistic estimates, does not exceed 10%. The critical level of delay in the bank’s business model at the time of launch was 15%, but with the improvement of scoring and underwriting mechanisms, this figure is planned to be reduced to 12% by the end of 2014. From the point of view of recruiting personnel, Summer Bank, which feedback is provided not only by borrowers, but also by employees, relies on young people, which helps minimize the staff turnover characteristic of this market segment.
During 2013, the bank's portfolio grew 29 times and exceeded 1 billion rubles. This indicator consists of two components - cash loans and POS loans (16 and 4 billion, respectively). The geography of places where the Summer Bank brand is growing is also growing - they were joined by Rostov-on-Don, Kemerovo and other large cities of Russia. By the end of 2014, the bank's management expects portfolio growth to 28 billion. Improving the infrastructure of this financial institution has reduced the average time for considering a loan application to 10 minutes, as a result of which lines from borrowers waiting for a decision have almost disappeared in credit centers. The work of the staff becomes more productive - Summer Bank understands it very well, whose staff feedback simply cannot be negative due to the well-coordinated organization of interaction between various departments.
Borrower rating
The scoring and underwriting system of Summer Bank is based on an automated system based on SAS Credit Scoring and SAS Real-Time Decision, designed to make decisions in real time. Also, several credit bureaus are connected to this process. Work is underway in the online direction: borrowers are evaluated, among other things, on the basis of profiles on social networks. The bank also plans to introduce a service that analyzes the personal relations of the borrower: with whom is he familiar, what age and gender do these people, how they, in turn, interact with each other and what relation they have to the bank.
Checking the client according to this scheme will allow, apart from studying the social profile, to determine how honest he is when filling out the application. At the same time, experts assess the role of a person in “scoring” and underwriting as high: not one, even the most advanced automated system, can multifactor analyze data on a borrower. “Summer Bank”, in which a loan application is considered in combination - both by an employee and automatically - adheres to similar views.
Credit cards
Now there are no credit cards in the Summer Bank product line, but the start of work with them is planned for 2014. So far, only cash loans have been issued, but the management of the institution understands that the card is a tool the market needs to increase sales. However, the credit card is intended to become an independent banking product. The management announced plans to open this area to several specialized media. “Summer Bank”, the cards of which it is planned to issue for investments from VTB 24, makes, according to market experts, a logical step.
Unsecured loans with a high interest rate, analysts believe, will find good compatibility with the "card" format. Economists consider this segment of lending quite popular in Russia. Perhaps the marketers of the "daughter" of VTB 24 should not pull until the end of 2014, but try another time of the year - summer. The addresses of the points where you can order "credit cards" will then be prompted to customers by employees of the institution’s offices.
POS lending
As already mentioned, the management of Summer Bank employs people who have been engaged in POS lending for many years: when a store buyer, having not found enough money to purchase a thing they like, can issue a small loan for it. Market experts believe that competition between various financial institutions in this segment is growing: retailers themselves invite representatives from banks to their retail outlets. The borrower can compare offers from several credit organizations and submit applications at once to everything, then to choose the most profitable option. The main task of market players, including Summer Bank, is to improve assessment mechanisms and increase infrastructure efficiency. The competition is high, and therefore the client will choose the institution that, first of all, will give the most prompt response to the application. The aspect of positive work with the borrower is also important - if the latter does not like something, then next time he will choose another organization, and Summer Bank is clearly aware of this. Customer reviews - namely positive ones - contribute to the establishment and development of a successful banking business.