On Managing the Risks of the Russian Crowdlending Market

In 2021-2023, the volume of investments in the crowd-lending market showed more than threefold growth, but the corresponding volume of unfulfilled obligations doubled. Global and Russian experience confirm that the crowd-lending market has great potential, which depends on effective risk management. The purpose of the study is to propose measures to regulate the risks of the Russian crowd-funding market. Research hypothesis: the mechanism of operation of the crowd-lending market is similar to the exchange-traded corporate bond market, which suggests the possibility of adapting individual regulatory mechanisms of the corporate bond market to the crowd-lending market. The scientific novelty of this research lies in the fact that it is the first time an analysis of the Russian crowd-lending market by level of credit risk has been conducted. The comparison of the regulatory mechanisms of the exchange-traded corporate bond market and the crowd-lending market is also original. Furthermore, new measures for managing the risks associated with the Russian crowd-lending market have been proposed. Research methods: grouping, FOREL clustering, comparative analysis. Main results: 1) in the Russian crowd-lending market, 2 groups of participants were observed annually: with zero and moderate risk, groups with high credit risk were present sporadically. When using FOREL clustering, it was revealed that the group of investment platform operators with zero and moderate credit risk is heterogeneous; 2) the common features and differences between the regulation of the exchange-traded corporate bond market and the crowd-lending market are discussed; 3) risk management measures in the crowd-lending market are proposed (quarterly reporting by the platform operator on the share of outstanding obligations in the total volume attracted investments with the establishment of a recommended threshold value for such an indicator; the introduction of a representative of borrowers among the participants of the investment platform to protect their rights and interests; the inclusion of the procedure for dealing with overdue debts in the rules of the investment platform).

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