In December, loan institutions, excluding companies offering deferred payments, granted 330 thousand loans for a total amount of PLN 1.139 billion – as concluded by the analysis of the Foundation for the Development of the Financial Market based on CRIF data. The results recorded are similar to the readings for November, while year-on-year, the industry recorded an increase of 8.1 percent in numerical terms and a decrease of 7.5 percent in terms of value.
The last two months of the year are usually characterized by higher loan sales. The Christmas period in 2023 also brought relatively good results for the sector of loan institutions. The number of inquiries regarding customers applying for a loan in December was 1.029 million, i.e., 0.7 percent less than in November 2023 and 16.9 percent more than in December 2022, which confirms the high demand for non-bank financing.
Loan sales in numerical terms closed at the level of 330 thousand compared to 329 thousand a month earlier (+0.3 percent) and 305 thousand in the same month of the previous year (+8.1 percent). Meanwhile, the value of granted financing reached PLN 1.139 billion in December compared to PLN 1.149 billion in November (-0.9 percent) and PLN 1.232 billion in December 2022 (-7.5 percent).
As emphasized by FRRF, the loan sector is still in a phase of deep changes. With the beginning of the new year, the final tranche of the so-called “anti-usury law” came into force, which includes loan institutions under the supervision of the KNF. This will affect the landscape of the industry, as smaller companies may not be able to afford the costs associated with conducting regulated activity and may soon disappear from the market. It is worth noting that after January 1, 2024, there were 104 entities in the register of loan institutions kept by the KNF, while at the end of December 2023 there were 420 companies.
BNPL Market on a Big Plus
Although some BNPL operators, like traditional loan companies, also found themselves under the supervision of the KNF, this fact did not significantly affect the level of sales of deferred payments. In November, for which the latest CRIF data is available, providers of financing in the buy now, pay later formula recorded 1.21 million transactions amounting to PLN 412.5 million, which compared to November 2022 represents an increase of 40.5 percent in numerical terms and 34 percent increase in terms of value. The good results of the market were largely influenced by November promotions organized for Black Friday or Cyber Monday. The market registered double-digit growth dynamics not only year-on-year, but also monthly: 19.1 percent in terms of the number of transactions and 12.8 percent in terms of the amount of granted financing. The number of customers using deferred payments in November was about 530 thousand. The value of a single transaction is estimated at PLN 341.
