OREANDA-NEWS. October 8, 2012. In the space of a year (July 1, 2011 – July 1, 2012) Uniastrum’s unsecured credit portfolio expanded 15% to Rb 7.8 bn. Over the same period the Bank’s consumer credit portfolio grew 30% to over Rb 4 bn, while its credit card portfolio reached Rb 3.75 bn. Uniastrum currently places 12th by credit card loans.

This month Uniastrum debuted its 5 new card options, Standard, Corporative, Trusted Partner, Exclusive, and Express, which feature all the benefits traditionally associated with the Bank’s debit and credit cards, an interest-free period of up to 55 days, and also allow holders to earn high rates of interest on positive balances. Furthermore, Uniastrum offers customers looking to refinance unsecured loans obtained from other banks its special U-Balance program. So far some 3,500 loans totaling over Rb 600 mn have been refinanced under this scheme.

The sustained expansion of Uniastrum’s consumer credit portfolio is largely thanks to the popularity of the lender’s Access loan option, which, says Sravni.ru web portal, is one of the best credit deals on Russia’s consumer lending market today. With an Access loan customers can borrow up to RB 600,000 for any purpose, repayable over a 5-year period. Interest rates start at 10.5% APR and are calculated on a per-customer basis using risk-based pricing. For more details visit http://www.uniastrum.ru/personal/crediting/customer/affordable.

“Consumer credit and credit cards are core areas of our retail segment,” says Egor Shkerin, Head of Uniastrum’s Network Sales and Business Development Division. “Before the year is out we aim to upsize consumer and credit card sales 30-40%”.