In the field of microcredit, one significant news is currently being discussed. It lies in the fact that over the past months of 2021, the share of online payday loans has grown significantly – at the moment it has reached its historical maximum. As a percentage, this is 29.6% of the total mass of short-term loans. Such data were provided by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), which includes 80% of all companies that are engaged in microfinance. Comparing indicators for online loans in 2021 and 2020 In the first quarter of 2021, 2.7 billion dollars of loans were issued. Compared to the first quarter of 2020, this amount increased by 18.8%. But the indicators related to online payday loans are much more interesting. They account for almost 825 million dollars, which is 40% more than in the same period (the same first quarter) last year. The growth of the offline portfolio is also noticeable – within the quarter it grew by 2.3%, and within the year – by 11.7%. As a result, as we can see from the numbers, the greatest growth in the microcredit market happened precisely because of the active development of online payday loans.
