Sergei Moiseev: “national economy benefits from any instrument designed to stimulate securitization”

Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev said in an interview with business daily Vedomosti what is ahead for the insurance market after another change of the regulator, how the Finance Ministry and the Bank of Russia will distribute their authority and about projects to insure securitized pools of loans. In particular, he thinks that securitization is one of the ways to make loans more affordable, first and foremost, for small and mid-sized enterprises. In his opinion, it is possible to securitize a standardized product, i.e. all possible types of consumer loans, mortgage and SME loans.

Moiseev went on to say that all major banks execute SME lending programs. This concerns standardized products whereby risks associated with a specific borrower are assessed, just like consumer lending. And this immediately creates reasons for securitization, the deputy minister pointed out.

“After the US story everybody says: the United States practiced securitization and what this led to? But it can be easily said that there was a banking crisis, let’s close banks. We treat carefully growth of consumer lending and will adopt a cautious approach towards this trend because the pace of growth in terms of the system’s stability frighten us. Any instrument aimed at stimulating securitization is to the benefit of the economy, and we’ll back this in every way," said Moiseev, adding US experience is to a large extent positive. Any product can be turned into an absurd thing and lead to a crisis, he said.