* The calculations use average data for Russia

Until recently, collection activities in Russia had no legal regulation, but since July 2014 everything has changed. Now the law clearly defines the rights and obligations of collectors, as well as debtors. Moreover, now an agency for the collection of problem debts has the right to exist - previously all such companies acted “semi-legally”. However, opening a collection agency is associated not only with difficulties in legal matters, but also in organizational matters, because the risks of such an undertaking are very high. At the same time, the state imposes certain requirements on such organizations, and not every entrepreneur is able to follow the prescribed instructions. The main thing is that today it is possible to open a legal collection agency and even make money in this direction, although in general the state is more interested in helping debtors (in any case, the legislative acts adopted recently are more beneficial to them).

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To begin with, there is a need to register your legal entity, but you should not become an individual entrepreneur - this may lead to the impossibility of engaging in such activities, and the very nature of the work is such that it will be easier to act as a legal entity. Although formally, individual entrepreneurs can become a collection agency. The registration procedure is, in general, standard, and obtaining licenses to carry out collection activities is not required, but you need to understand that only an agency that is a member of one of the self-regulatory organizations that unites debt collectors will be legal. The main condition when choosing an SRO for a beginning entrepreneur is that it includes at least 10 collection agencies. This is the only way a self-regulatory organization can be recognized as operating within the legal framework. But the conditions for joining an SRO may vary greatly depending on its charter, in some places a membership fee may be required, in others there may be mandatory monthly payments, an SRO can form an insurance fund, and members of a self-regulatory organization may be required to provide it. It’s hardly possible to say anything for sure here - after registration, an entrepreneur will have to contact more than one office to compare all the conditions in all of them. It should also be taken into account that there may be a limited number of such companies in the region of work, because the law came into force relatively recently, and the market has not yet fully formed. That is, an entrepreneur must understand that he is starting a business in which there are still many difficulties and ambiguities, and even experienced businessmen who have been running collection agencies for many years cannot quite adjust their work in accordance with the new realities. It is worth noting that the company itself must have an insurance fund, because the work of collectors implies the possibility of causing some kind of harm to debtors, at least moral, and the company must be able to answer for the consequences of its activities. The amount of the insurance fund can be very large (from 10 million rubles), and therefore not every entrepreneur will be able to open such a company. That is, in essence, to open a simple agency you do not need a large amount of money (even 500 thousand may be enough to open a small office), but its work must be supported by reserve funds, because the collector may be liable even to individuals.

Next, you need to think about finding premises for your agency, and many offices open by renting a very small space. However, here you may encounter the fact that during the work process you will need more space, and specially equipped one. The fact is that when collecting debts, it may be necessary to seize the debtor’s property, and it needs to be stored somewhere until it is sold, and outsourcing companies can help here if the agency does not want or does not have the ability to maintain its own full-fledged warehouse. In general, to open a representative office, it is enough to have a room measuring 30-50 m2; there is simply no point in a larger area, because at first it is unlikely that you will have to maintain a significant staff. So, you need to look for office space, and not necessarily in the central areas of the city, because the agency will not have to accept a large number of people.

The cost of rent depends on a huge number of factors, but in any case, the entrepreneur will have to count on a rather large amount by the standards of his region, because he needs to rent office space, preferably already equipped with everything necessary or at least simply renovated. There is no point in naming exact prices, because when comparing federal cities and small provincial settlements, the difference can be several times greater. Another thing is that it is not worth opening a collection agency in a small town, because there will be no work there at all, although it will be much simpler - searching for a person in a metropolis is many times more difficult than in some urban village (and you will have to search , a rare debtor, whose case has reached the collectors, surrenders voluntarily). Renting an office of 50 square meters will cost about 50-60 thousand rubles per month in an average city (generally 1-1.5 thousand rubles per square meter), although, as already noted, it can be 2-3 times more . If we take into account any business center, the amount will be even higher; the cost of renting a room of this size in Moscow in a good location may well exceed 200 thousand rubles. However, you need to understand that such expenses are not practical to open a collection agency. Of course, you won’t be able to get by with just some building - because the office should be a representative office where potential partners come, but you shouldn’t count on big expenses, there is always an opportunity to save. The cost of office equipment will generally be small, because you will only need to buy furniture and simple office equipment. Based on 30-50 thousand rubles for one workplace (no one is going to buy oak tables and heavy-duty computers). It is also worth noting that some banks are interested in opening a collection agency that will be a partner (that is, fulfill only or at least primarily orders from the parent bank), and here you can count on some support from them. However, for those who decide to work in this direction, the process of opening their own collection agency is simplified several times, and the main disadvantage is the impossibility of implementing their own policy - and they will only be able to receive a modest percentage.

Yes, we need to go into a little more detail here. An entrepreneur has 2 work formats available. Strictly speaking, a collection agency is a company that directly cooperates with the bank and receives a percentage of the money seized for bad debts. That is, he receives an agent's remuneration. The second format of work is a company that buys debts from various credit organizations, after which it “knocks out” these debts to form exclusively its own income. Among other things, there is another important point here - in the first case, the collection agency begins to work with debtors even before its case is transferred to the court, here the bank remains the beneficiary, and the work is carried out with the expectation of returning the amount that was prescribed in the agreement with the borrower initially. If successful, the collection agency gives the funds to the bank, receiving a small percentage for the work. It is difficult to say what it will be, usually it is up to 15%, although in the case of very problematic loans this figure may increase. In fact, here it’s up to you to come to an agreement, and since this format of work is almost never used in Russia, there is no need to talk about any exact values ​​at all - even market participants do not know them. Much more often, the bank does a simpler thing - it enters into an assignment agreement (assignment of the right of claim) with the collection agency and forgets about the debtor forever. Here it must be said that formally the bank has two ways to resolve this problem - sue the borrower or transfer the case to collectors, and by winning the court, the bank remains the recipient of the collected debt (and legally in Russia only bailiffs have the right to receive it from the borrower), and the collection agency no longer has the right to demand anything from the borrower - after all, the court obliges to terminate the agreement between the bank and the borrower. And without an agreement, it is impossible to assign the right of claim. So, if you work according to this scheme, then you need to make sure that the bank did not take the case to court, but decided to simply get rid of its problem.

In fact, there is always enough work for a huge number of collectors, because debts are generally returned by a very small percentage of the population. Another thing is that it is not always possible to get something from the debtor. Therefore, the bank simply hopes to get at least something by turning to collectors. The amount of the debt sale can also vary (usually depending on the complexity), but rarely exceeds 10% of the amount of the debt itself, and on average varies between 2 and 6 percent. Again, these are very average figures, especially since no one usually wants to disclose this information. It is quite likely that they demand half the amount for a loan, and sometimes even more - this is the case if the bank does not like to deal with problem debts at all and it is easier and cheaper for them to simply relinquish it. But in any case, if banks begin to sell their debts at a large percentage of the amount, then it will be unprofitable for the collector to work - he takes the most difficult cases, he is given mainly those contracts for which nothing can be obtained under the standard debt collection scheme. And many of the collectors’ cases still remain unclosed. This is especially true now that a law has been adopted declaring an individual bankrupt - all debts over 500 thousand rubles can now be legally written off (even after going through a long procedure of proving one’s insolvency). Thus, the work of a collection agency comes down to finding as many “cheap” debts as possible, because it is unlikely (especially at first) to receive money from at least every second contract.

The next stage of organizing a business is hiring staff for work. Depending on the size of the agency, the number of people, of course, increases, but the staff of collectors will have to be constantly increased, because one person cannot handle too many contracts. First you need to hire 3-4 people, each of them usually receives a small salary (15-20 thousand depending on the region), but has a considerable percentage of the collected debt. Therefore, in total, the salary of such an employee will be 50-80 thousand rubles - but this is ideal. In addition, you need to hire an office secretary and an accountant; there is no point in turning to an accounting outsourcer, because the help of such a specialist may always be needed. A good accountant earns from 30 thousand rubles, in large cities even more. Next - a financial consultant and a lawyer, these people are needed to ensure that the collection process proceeds optimally quickly and efficiently, these specialists are required to understand all contracts, the financier also assesses the likelihood of collection and the amount (yes, getting the full amount of the debt is a success, usually you have to limit yourself to some percentage or just receive it in parts for a very long time). The lawyer represents the company in court, and the winnings largely depend on him. Moreover, in light of the fact that legislation is constantly changing, and debt collectors are often sued by borrowers themselves, the help of a lawyer is critically necessary. The financier receives 40-50 thousand rubles, the lawyer’s salary is approximately the same, in addition he can be motivated to receive a percentage of each successfully won case in court. By the way, a collection agency will sue only as a last resort, because it is even more profitable for it to come to an agreement with the borrower and receive the debt, albeit for a long time, but in full; Through the court, the debtor can completely get rid of bondage. Company employees must strictly comply with the requirements of the law; today, a collection agency, to put it bluntly, cannot exert any pressure on the debtor at all; all that is available to him is to conduct negotiations, and in many respects when and where it is convenient for him. From the point of view of the law, this is, of course, the right decision, because now a collection agency is a normal company that operates within the framework of criminal, administrative and civil codes, and although a soldering iron and threats are usually more effective, today resorting to such methods is the right way to have problems with law.

Ready ideas for your business

You can make money from collection activities only if the collectors themselves work effectively. However, no matter how hard the employees work, it is unlikely that they will be able to get money from each debt. Therefore, before starting work, you need to carefully check all the calculations and draw up a business plan that includes a worst-case scenario. During the first time of work, you will have to master a lot of methods of debt collection, because debtors can evade debt in all available ways, including leaving the country. Each collection agency has a certain percentage of “bad” debts, but you should not buy all bad debts in a row - a lawyer and an experienced debt collector should assess the risks and likelihood of success for each agreement. Of course, most often banks sell their “stuck” loans in batches - that is, in addition to relatively risk-free debts, they also add those that are unlikely to be sold for a small amount. It is precisely accurate planning and calculation that will allow the agency not to spend all of its money on obviously losing cases, but banks are trying to get rid of these in the first place. Let’s take a simple debt of 250 thousand rubles for calculation. Subtracting 6% from this amount, it turns out that the amount of possible income will be 235 thousand rubles. At the same time, the entrepreneur himself sometimes receives only half (if not less), because the rest of the money goes to interest for employees. In general, it is difficult to give exact calculations here, because collectors do not advertise their activities, and in each specific case, the percentage received can vary greatly. It follows that the profitability of such a business may vary, and the performance indicators themselves change from month to month, so it makes sense to have some kind of reserve fund. Today, the activities of a collection agency will almost certainly follow one pattern, because otherwise it will not be possible to comply with all legal requirements.

Over the past few years, the Russian market has been overwhelmed by a lending boom. According to some estimates, up to 80% of Russia's working population has used consumer lending services. Let's take the official statistics of banks - 5% of issued loans are not repaid - take into account the opinion of experts who estimate the volume of non-repayment at 15% and we get an optimistic 10%. Optimistic for those who see in this figure a huge and, most importantly, still free market for companies building their business on debt collection.

Today in our article we will talk about collection business.

The special attractiveness of the collection business, in addition to the high market capacity (over $200,000 million), is its low entry barriers. Today, no licenses or permits are required to open a debt collection agency. A table, a chair, office equipment (preferably together with an office), a telephone (preferably several), a vehicle (for traveling to debtors) and you are ready to conquer the financial Olympus, becoming an implacable enemy of malicious defaulters.

But enough pathetics - let's move on to the facts.

Income collection companies - this is a certain percentage of the amount of debts repaid with your help. Its size can vary from 10 to 50% depending on the duration of the debt, the region, and the debtor himself. As a rule, the average collection agency rate is 25-30% of the amount actually repaid.

So, first step What you have to do after registering the company is to find a customer who will agree to entrust you with the work of collecting debts from their problem clients. As a rule, large collection companies prefer to work with legal entities, but young companies are often ready to solve the problems of debt collection of any individual who contacts them. And yet, the main clients of debt collection agencies, for obvious reasons, are legal entities, and it is among them that you should start looking for your first customer. Potential customers can be divided into several categories: banks and credit institutions, insurance companies, cellular operators, trading companies and organizations from the housing and communal services sector. The largest, and therefore most interesting, companies from the listed areas usually already work with collection companies or have their own debt collection department. But it’s still worth trying to offer your services. If you are confident in your professionalism, you can offer to work with clients whom your competitors have rejected as hopeless. If you manage to repay such debts, you may receive a trial order.

And now the immediate work with debtors.

The first stage is sorting received debts by time of overdue payment. The shorter this period, the higher the likelihood of repaying the debt. For debts overdue for up to 30 days, the refund amount reaches 80%. But the longer the delay in payment, the less chance of repaying the debt. Debt is divided into “early” - 60-120 days and “late” - 120-180.

It is also worth choosing debts for which preliminary work was carried out by the customer’s own debt collection department. The probability of successful recovery in such cases is no higher than 40%; for this reason, collection agencies strive to ensure that there are as few such debts in the database transferred to them as possible.

With a standard flow of “unprocessed” debts, the positive result can reach up to 60-70%, multiply this by the standard commission of 25%, and determine the minimum total volume of orders you need to achieve self-sufficiency.

However, let's get back to work. Debts have been sorted - it's time to move on to communicating with debtors. At the first stage, we practice calling clients and sending SMS reminders about the debt. The results of the first call allow us to divide debtors into main types:

Forgetful - disorganized comrades, easy to deal with debts, and living by the principle - you take someone else's and for a while - you give yours forever.

Debtors due to circumstances - sudden illness, loss of job and other unforeseen circumstances that significantly affected the debtor's solvency

Fighters for justice - they refuse to pay the “inflated” interest, fees about which they were allegedly not warned, and so on.

Fraudsters are people who initially took out a loan without the intention of repaying it. I am glad that the number of such borrowers, according to statistics, does not exceed 10%-15%.

It is clear that work with each category of debtors should be structured differently. For some, one conversation is enough to explain the adverse consequences of further delay of the debt, but a significant proportion of defaulters will still have to be met in person.

The next stage is explanatory work with close relatives of the debtor, posting notices in the entrance (a bet on shame in front of neighbors) or sending a notice of unwillingness to pay off debts to work (the same principle).

In general, an experienced collection company has many methods to ruin a debtor’s life, including restricting the debtor’s travel abroad.

But this is at the last judicial stage. Now you can no longer do without a lawyer. This is why collection services are so often provided by law firms. Typically, the court takes the creditor's side and obliges the debtor to pay the entire debt, including interest and penalties. The debtor's property is seized and sold at auction. But these are technical details...

Usually the case does not go to court. For most, the decisive incentive to pay off a debt is receiving a subpoena. As you can see, the activities of collection companies are primarily associated with pre-trial methods of debt collection. Therefore, psychological skills in working with people and significant “thick skin” are especially in demand in this business - you will have to listen to many tragic stories, not to mention the flow of aggression that is inevitable in such a thankless task.

Now a few words about the necessary staff: in a large collection company, in addition to the constant manager and accountant, as a rule, there is a call center (usually students), a legal department, specialists in enforcement proceedings, a travel service and a courier.

Wages are both fixed (for callers) and piecework. Collectors (who directly meet with clients) receive up to 15-20% of the final remuneration for their work, lawyers - 20-30%. But these are still approximate figures and each collection company builds its remuneration system in its own way.

Well, that's probably all. Of course, as in any business, collection activities have many nuances known to market professionals. But to become a professional, you have to start somewhere. And it’s better to start now, while the market is relatively young and still far from saturation...

• How you can make money by purchasing debts of individuals
• Good deal
• Buying debt
• Summary

How you can make money by purchasing debts of individuals

Did you know that someone's debt can be bought ? Why, and whether there is any benefit from this, you will find out right now.

For those who are not yet aware, we declare that purchase of debt for individuals faces This is a fairly common type of activity. The practice of such activities today is carried out not only in Europe, but throughout the world. Debt redemption can only be done when the debtor does not want to give his duty in the agreed amount and within the specified period. The reasons for this can be very different; in this process they have no significance and do not in any way affect the course of events. As soon as the period for which the debtor has undertaken to pay his duty , penalties and various types of sanctions can be immediately introduced, and it also becomes possible debt purchase.

Redemption of an individual's debt is a fairly profitable process, for both parties, but it is worth noting that this is most often, but not always (too many factors influence the course of events in the process in question).

Good deal

The organization, most often a banking institution, which acts as the seller in this process, receives relief from any obligations that may be associated with the unpaid debt. On the other hand, a collection company, which acts as a buyer here, has the opportunity to make very good money on this purchase. Debt of an individual becomes a problem for the buyer, the bank thinks so, the collectors are rubbing their hands and preparing to make a profit. It turns out that, ultimately, debt purchase beneficial to both collectors and the bank.

The bank selects the company to which they will sell debt physical faces . Banks have plenty to choose from; today there are a large number of such companies, so a banking-type institution is looking for the most favorable conditions for selling the debts of persistent defaulters. The transaction will be completed if both parties sign the contract with an agreement to all the conditions written in the contract. At the same moment, the bank declines responsibility for the sold duty and gets his money back.

Buying debt

Sold private debt faces becomes a headache for the collection company, the bank will no longer have anything to do with this debt. Buy personal debt individuals can be obtained at special auctions held by bank employees. This kind of auction is no different from other similar events. There is a seller, there is someone who wants to implement ransom , whoever offers the most will get the lot, in this case it can be several at once debts

Before you implement debt redemption , the buyer, as in the case of any other product, checks all the documents for it, analyzes its characteristics and only after that, decides whether to buy the debt individuals or it is not worth investing in the product offered. The most important criterion that a buyer considers before saying “ we buy it back debt” is the debtor’s solvency. The fact is that collection firms understand perfectly well that banking institutions are selling personal debts personalities , which, in their opinion, are hopeless options, but despite this, collection companies take responsibility for such debtors and carry out redemption of their debt.

To the question, how much does the collection company have from each transaction, that is, from each purchased personal debt? . individuals, no one can give an exact answer, because it depends on many circumstances and the situation itself, as well as on the amount of debt, but, in principle, such companies expect to double their profits, which means to “withdraw” from the debtor an amount of two times more than what they committed ransom

Accounts receivable is an income source asset

Summary

Banking institutions do not sell all debts physical persons . Even if the debtor, a little late, promises to improve and soon pay all his debts, and he is a solvent client, the bank will not sell his debt. So, if you have any debts. Try to pay them off as quickly as possible so that they are not sold to a collection company, to which you will have to pay even more than you owed the bank, and these people are not to be trifled with.

The crisis turned out to be a difficult time for enterprises in the region. To survive, organizations borrow and work on debt. Making payments often seems like a big problem. Many people face difficulties in repaying current loans. And here the fish, which begins to float to the surface with its belly, is swallowed by a shark that specializes in eating its own kind, only with decent debts and, an obligatory condition, attractive assets. In short, the difficult economic situation in the country and region gives rise to predators who are fattening on the crisis.

FEB was interested in the question: what method of collecting debts from legal entities is most popular in times of crisis? Expert opinions have shown that there are a number of official, civilized methods: debt restructuring, reducing loan interest, voluntary sale of collateral, repaying debt in installments. According to the unequivocal judgment of many banking experts and employees of collection agencies, problem loans have increased. They are fought with all the methods listed above. Currently, the number of cases involving the sale of pledged property has increased. However, the crisis forced bankers to see a lot of interesting things in their client base - unscrupulous borrowers who are getting away from debt, as they say, cleanly. For this purpose, a bankruptcy procedure is used, when introduced, a moratorium is imposed on the payment of debts to creditors, and if the enterprise is declared bankrupt, accounts payable to bankruptcy creditors are completely canceled. However, in a civilized bankruptcy, the debtor retains a collateral, which, when sold, can cover the debts and at least somehow satisfy the creditors. But often civilized methods are unacceptable and uninteresting for our country. There are other ways in which debtors and creditors remain in the red, and third parties (?!) remain in the black. Like this?

If you follow Federal Law No. 127 of October 26, 2006, a legal entity whose obligations to creditors amount to more than 100 thousand rubles, and whose debt payment is overdue for three months, is subject to bankruptcy proceedings. Agree, during a crisis, a lot of companies have such problems. According to a representative of the Arbitration Court of the Orenburg Region, not just every second, but every first enterprise can, if you want, be completely legally bankrupt. The main thing, in pursuit of the goal of profit, is to take on a “living” company that has attractive assets - a good building, modern working equipment, a decent piece of land, for example. In a word, a good property fund. So, a special organization is looking for a similar enterprise that finds itself in debt like silk, and buys out accounts payable, while acquiring the assets of the debtor. The further goal is to bankrupt the legal entity. As a result, the debtor is deprived of assets that he could use to cover his accounts payable by selling them. The company, frankly speaking, remains naked - there is nothing to pay its debts. Neither financial recovery procedures nor external management help. Most often, after the implementation of the monitoring procedure, it is clear that all the tools for getting the enterprise out of debt are ineffective. The court declares such a company bankrupt and bankruptcy proceedings are introduced against it. All! Unpaid debts to creditors turn to dust. And the predator that eats the fish is left with the assets of the bankrupt enterprise in its teeth. Now you can use them as you wish.

Arbitration managers are also involved in this process. During the monitoring procedure, they do everything possible to help bring the enterprise to the final stage of bankruptcy. That is why they receive a substantial sum in addition to the fixed salary of the arbitration manager, which according to the law is more than the average salary in the Orenburg region, namely an average of 30 thousand rubles per month. According to experts, this scheme is popular in the Orenburg region; serious business is being done on it, or, most likely, what every second person does in Sicily. Although buying up the debts of legal entities is not prohibited by law. So it turns out to be an ugly business on completely legal grounds. What to do in these cases? No answer. The human desire to earn money by any means is stronger than Russian law. In addition, some enterprises, realizing their insolvency, go bankrupt themselves. By law, a debtor can file bankruptcy for himself and cancel his debts.

The bankruptcy procedure, which is largely due to the convenience of implementing an “uncivilized” scheme, is becoming increasingly widespread. Statistics also prove this. According to the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation, in the first half of 2009, the number of bankruptcy applications accepted for processing increased by 24.1% compared to the same period last year (Expert magazine, No. 37). The dynamics are significant. Statistics from the Arbitration Court of the Orenburg Region say that over the past two years, several times fewer applications for bankruptcy of enterprises have been filed with the court. Thus, in the first half of 2009, 215 applications were received, for the same period in 2007 – 962 applications. However, the reason for the sharp decline is not that someone stopped bankrupting enterprises. It’s just that a few years earlier the arbitration court received bankruptcy petitions against absent debtors. As a rule, tax authorities submitted applications to shell companies that were created and registered to carry out any calculations. The business was immediately abandoned, and the accumulated debts were simply not paid. It was impossible to find the ends. And in order to clear the register of debtors, the tax office filed bankruptcy petitions with the regional arbitration court. Then a law was passed obliging such companies to be liquidated administratively, without going to court. Therefore, the influx of applications stopped, and, consequently, the volume of such cases settled at 250-300 for six months of the year. According to the regional arbitration court, in the first half of last year, 372 applications were filed with the court to declare a legal entity bankrupt. This is above average. Such growth can be directly related to the beginning of the crisis in the country, when many enterprises began to lose ground from under their feet, wage arrears formed and grew, and difficulties arose in paying obligations to suppliers and creditors. Mostly agricultural enterprises and housing and communal services enterprises began to go bankrupt (or they began to go bankrupt!).
According to experts, we should expect an increase in the number of bankruptcy filings in the second half of the year, which is associated with the ongoing crisis in the region. Currently, there is a tendency for individual entrepreneurs to go bankrupt. Moreover, individual entrepreneurs liquidate themselves, unable to pay their debts. A business founded on bankruptcy has every chance to develop.

A banker's nightmare

Today in the afternoon it is impossible to find a company that does not have credit obligations to banks. Banks treat some proven and reliable clients who find themselves in a difficult situation with understanding: they restructure the debt, make concessions on interest, of course, in response to an increase in the collateral mass. In a word, they help to survive during a crisis. However, there are unscrupulous borrowers - they hide, do not pay, do not negotiate and, in the end, bankrupt the business using asset diversion schemes. This is an extreme situation caused simply by the arrogance of the borrower. I wonder how, after the crisis, these people are going to develop their business after such relationships with creditors?

The bankruptcy of a debtor is a difficult case for a bank. Firstly, the procedure itself takes a very long time, sometimes years. At the same time, a moratorium is established on the payment of debts to creditors. But no one thinks that the credit institution gave a loan to the enterprise not only at the expense of its own funds, but also at the expense of the funds of its investors. And at a time when the loan to the bank is not repaid, the bank is obliged to pay its customers monthly interest on deposits. The question often arises: at what cost? The situation, according to bankers, is aggravated by the adoption of amendments to the law “On Insolvency (Bankruptcy),” which were approved by the Federation Council on December 29, 2008. Financiers have the following opinion on this matter:

“The amendments to the bankruptcy law contain such a position that it is possible to get out of bankruptcy through the financial rehabilitation of an enterprise, without necessarily closing the organization or going bankrupt. But from practice, I do not remember a case where such a procedure was introduced at Orenburg enterprises. This is just another prolongation of debts. It is believed that lenders will wait indefinitely for the loan to be repaid. But in this case, it is not taken into account that banks fulfill their obligations to their depositors, including through the repayment of loans and interest on them. I think that if these changes are adopted, then the banking system can simply collapse in this way. In general, bankruptcy legislation has always been on the side of the bankrupt enterprise,” a representative of the management of one of the regional banks comments on the situation.

The situation with the sale of the collateral of a bankrupt enterprise is also difficult. Article 138 of the Federal Law under the heading “Claims of creditors for obligations secured by a pledge of the debtor’s property” states that: “1. Of the proceeds from the sale of the pledged item, seventy percent is used to pay off the creditor's claims under the obligation secured by the pledge of the debtor's property, but no more than the principal amount of the debt on the obligation secured by the pledge and interest due. 2. If the pledge of the debtor’s property secures the claims of the bankruptcy creditor under a loan agreement, of the proceeds from the sale of the subject of the pledge, eighty percent is directed to repay the claims of the bankruptcy creditor under the loan agreement secured by the pledge of the debtor’s property, but no more than the principal amount of the debt under the obligation secured by the pledge and the interest due. If the repeated auction is declared invalid, the bankruptcy creditor for obligations secured by a pledge of the debtor’s property has the right to retain the pledged item with an assessment of it in the amount of ten percent below the initial sale price at the repeated auction.” Thus, the sale of collateral when the debtor is declared bankrupt is not profitable for the bank. The creditor receives only the principal amount of the debt and the interest due, while when a settlement is reached and the collateral is sold to cover the loan without bankruptcy, the bank, as a rule, receives twice as much, because when issuing a loan, the credit institution requires a collateral amount that is twice the amount of the loan.

The problem is that in the Orenburg region there is no well-functioning scheme for the sale of collateral property. Bailiffs only seize the debtor's collateral; there is no one to sell it at auction, although in theory there are selling companies for this. So it turns out that banks themselves are beginning to engage in non-core activities, which cause many problems. Firstly, the collateral of debtors - legal entities - is, as a rule, commercial real estate. According to experts, the regional market for the purchase and sale of commercial real estate is currently too weak. Moreover, during the crisis, the problem of a sharp decline in the cost of a square meter of real estate emerged. Often, when accepted as collateral, before the crisis, objects were valued an order of magnitude higher than what they are worth today – at the time the collateral was sold. That is, again, lost profit for banks. With all this, when accepting a pledge on its balance sheet, the bank bears the responsibility for maintaining the property, which is also associated with additional taxation. Moreover, the sale of this type of collateral, such as goods in circulation, imposes big problems on the bank. It requires specific solutions. For example, the sale of alcoholic beverages requires an appropriate license. Where can a financial institution get it? These and many other awkward situations are placed in banks by unscrupulous borrowers or those who have not calculated their strengths. Reserves are created for problem loans, loans are transferred to a low quality category, the quality of the bank’s loan portfolio decreases, and accordingly the business reputation of the credit institution loses its strength.

All these difficulties resulted in the fact that lenders’ requirements for new borrowers became more stringent during the crisis. Some banks do not consider loan applications from new clients at all, they work only with old, proven enterprises - this is their truth. Control over the activities of companies under existing loan agreements has been seriously strengthened. There is even a practice in the region where, after issuing a loan, a loan officer goes to the borrowing company every day, like going to work. He works there, lives in a team, communicates with management, and in the event of the slightest sign of the borrower’s insolvency, sends an alarm signal to the creditor bank. Probably, such measures are justified in times of crisis. The tightening of banks' credit policies is also proven by statistics. The growth rate of lending to legal entities in the first half of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008 decreased by exactly a quarter (from 115.5% to 80.2%).

Thus, it is clear that the situation is in a time of crisis, when the financial activity of credit enterprises in relation to potential borrowers has faded, companies cannot get a loan, and many enterprises are experiencing great difficulties not only with the development, but also with keeping their activities afloat, cunning profit schemes In this situation, they are developing faster than financial support measures. Experts seriously complain about this in their conversations, arguing that it is very difficult to conduct business in such uncivilized conditions.

You can sometimes earn more on corporate bonds than on the stock market. The example of private investor Vadim Voronin, who has been involved in fixed income instruments since the early 1990s, is the best confirmation of this. The average return of his portfolio, which is 80% bonds, is 15% per year. Not a bad result considering that the stock market has fallen 7% over the past two years.

Voronin, a MIPT graduate, has been responsible for transactions in the fixed income market in the Moscow office of JP Morgan since 1996. After the stock market crash in 2008, he left the bank and began working only for himself, setting up an office in his apartment in Zamoskvorechye. His job comes down primarily to finding undervalued bonds. When buying them, he counts first of all on the rise in the price of securities, and only then on coupon payments. What principles does he follow when choosing bonds and building his portfolio?

The first stage of selecting bonds begins with studying macroeconomic reports and the reporting of the companies themselves. This takes 70% of Voronin’s working time. Must-read reports include reports from JP Morgan, Credit Swiss, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and the Hong Kong financial group CLSA. “The newspapers won’t write which companies in which industry will be successful in the next six months; you have to look for everything yourself, and this is always difficult,” says Voronin. After selecting promising industries, he takes a detailed look at all the companies operating in those sectors, selecting bonds to buy. The work does not end there - the investor monitors all corporate news of the issuer on a daily basis.

“Macroeconomics and industry choice are 50% of success in the bond market, the rest is psychology,” says Voronin. He picks the sector's most undervalued company—one that appears to be doing poorly and has high bond yields. “When the market believes that a security is bad, this is not necessarily the case,” assures the private investor.

For example, in the spring of this year, when metal prices reached maximum post-crisis levels, it was worth buying bonds of metallurgical companies. But at that moment, the level of debt burden of Russian metallurgists was growing, and with it the risks of investors were growing. Voronin bought the bonds of Mechel and EvrazHolding Finance, despite the fact that the ratio of net debt to EBITDA for these companies was at the level of 3, while for other market participants it was lower (Severstal - 1.3, MMK - 1 ,1, NLMK - 0.4). By the summer, Mechel's bonds rose in price from 102% to 106%, and Evraz's - from 85% to 89% of par. Having sold them in the summer, Voronin earned about 10%, taking into account coupon payments.

Twenty percent per annum is the minimum salary that Voronin is targeting. Therefore, he does not buy first-tier bonds, where the yield today is 7–8% per annum, or Eurobonds of Russian issuers. It would be easier to put the money on deposit. Today, 60% of Voronin's bond portfolio consists of securities from the oil and construction industries. These are bonds of Bashneft and securities of developers, whom, according to Voronin, the state will help. For example, the St. Petersburg company LenSpetsSMU. Another 30% is metallurgists' papers, but Voronin intends to start selling them soon.

About 10% is accounted for by SU-155 bonds - risky investments, according to Voronin. This company, owned by former Moscow government official Mikhail Balakin, is opaque, and the yield on its bonds to put is about 19%. Voronin's rule: high-risk securities should not occupy more than 10% of investments. In his portfolio, Voronin usually holds bonds from more than 5-6 issuers.

There are no securities of financial organizations in it now: Voronin considers this industry less promising than construction or oil production. However, it was precisely with the debts of financial companies that even a year and a half ago it was possible to carry out very successful transactions. In December 2008, it was possible to buy bonds of the 5th and 8th issues of the Russian Standard Bank, which then cost 50% and 80% of the par value, respectively. By selling them in the spring of 2009 at a price close to par, one could earn up to 180% per annum. “There will be no such cases on the market in the near future,” Voronin believes.

The debt market is no less “emotional” than the stock market. Emotions are primarily provided by fund managers or investment bank traders. Voronin himself worked in a bank and knows how, looking at cheaper debts, department managers give the command to sell. Even if the paper becomes cheaper by 2–3%, for a bank operating in billions of dollars, the losses can be significant. And then no fundamental analysis is valid, no potential valuations of the company’s business are taken into account. As in the stock market, at such moments you should not panic and get rid of securities. On the contrary, this is a great opportunity to buy, says Voronin.

Another rule is not to wait for the bond to mature. At this point, the liquidity of the securities is falling, so Voronin prefers to buy another public debt. Does he buy shares? The typical ratio of bonds to stocks is 80/20. “Sometimes the proportion can be 50/50, but only when I see big movements in the stock market and understand exactly what I can earn now,” says Voronin. He again invests the profit earned from playing on stocks into bonds.