MOSCOW, May 6.The most disciplined legal entities in terms of repaying bank loans are Chukotka and a number of other regions of the Far East; the highest share of overdue debt is in business in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Dagestan, and Karachay-Cherkessia, the study shows *.
The whole picture
According to statistics from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the volume of the corporate loan portfolio from March 1, 2023 to March 1, 2024 increased by 19.3%. In general, in the second half of 2023, bank lending to businesses was at a stable and at the same time high level. The last time such dynamics occurred was in 2012. Thus, increasing rates in the economy and increasing requirements for borrowers have so far had a relatively limited effect on the dynamics of corporate lending.
The quality of the corporate loan portfolio increased along with positive lending dynamics. In general, the share of overdue payments is currently near multi-year lows. The share of overdue debt in the corporate loan portfolio as of March 1, 2024 accounts for only 3.8%, which is close to the 2009 minimum.
To assess the payment discipline of corporate clients on a regional basis, experts conducted a study and prepared a rating of Russian regions by the share of overdue business debt on bank loans based on Central Bank data. According to the results of the study, as of March 1, 2024, the share of overdue debt between regions varies from 0.1% to 64%, and the median value of the share of overdue debt on loans to the population was 2.6%.
Leaders of payment discipline
The leader in payment discipline of legal entities was the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, where only 0.1% of loans are overdue. Also in the top five leaders in payment discipline are the Amur Region (0.2%), Kamchatka Territory (0.2%), Magadan Region (0.2%) and Trans-Baikal Territory (0.3%). Thus, among the regions with a low share of overdue payments, the regions of the Russian Far East predominate. However, in absolute terms, loan portfolios in these regions are not very large. In total, these five regions account for only 2.3% of the loan portfolio of legal entities. 
The top ten leaders also include the Murmansk region, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Udmurtia, Yakutia and the Sverdlovsk region. The second five have a more diverse geography, but most of them are northern regions. In general, in the top ten regions the share of overdue payments does not exceed 0.7%, which is five times less than the national average.
Outsiders of the rating
The highest share of overdue debt by a noticeable margin is observed in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (64%). The authors of the study believe that in this small region one large borrower could have gone bankrupt, which led to such a large overdue period. 
Also a high share of overdue payments was recorded in the regions of the North Caucasus, in particular in Dagestan (52.5%), Karachay-Cherkessia (36.1%), Kabardino-Balkaria (30.2%) and Chechnya (24.3%). The situation with the overdue population looks similar.
The most impressive loan portfolios
In Moscow, legal entities took out loans for more than 25 trillion rubles, which is approximately 40% of the loan portfolio for Russia as a whole. At the same time, the share of overdue payments is 6.2%, which corresponds to 68th place in the ranking. St. Petersburg took second place in terms of loan volume (8.2% of the all-Russian volume), and the overdue period here is low — 2.5% and 40th place in the ranking. Also, another large region in terms of lending is the Moscow region, where the share of overdue loans is 3.3% (48th place in the country), and the volume of the loan portfolio of legal entities is 4.7 trillion rubles. In general, these three regions provide more than half of the country’s loan portfolio.
*The rating was prepared by order of the agency by RIA Rating specialists.
