Banks are not always able to reliably assess the financial position of lessors who do not have IFRS statements. The solution to the problem will be the transfer of leasing companies to the standards of the Central Bank
In the first quarter of 2018, the Bank of Russia analyzed the terms of bank lending for the top 20 lessors. The information obtained is important in the context of the leasing reform being carried out by the Central Bank. The leasing market is the largest financial market in Russia after the banking one. At the end of 2017, the total leasing portfolio broke another record and reached RUB 3.45 trillion. Who finances the lessors? Due to bonds, bank loans and loans from related parties. Bank loans are in first place: according to the Bank of Russia, the top 20 lessors have attracted 846 billion rubles. loans, which form 47% of their liabilities. By the way, the top 20 accounts for 1.8 trillion rubles. assets under RAS, or about 70% of the estimated size of the leasing sector.
Three models
Bank lending conditions determine the financial position in the leasing sector, its ability to compete with alternative financial instruments and availability of leasing for the client. According to the results, three forms of financing for the largest lessors can be distinguished: without bank loans, mono-lending from the parent bank and lending from a pool of banks. Foreign subsidiaries, which in Russia are represented by structures of manufacturers of foreign equipment and technology, mostly manage without loans. They are entirely funded by loans from parent structures.
The monocredit model operates in the largest Russian and foreign banking groups. Their policy is not to allow subsidiaries to go beyond its limits, even if other banks can provide Better conditions. A credit line is opened for the lessor with an issue limit or with a debt limit. As part of the credit line, tranches are issued secured by leasing items. The monocredit model implies the lack of independence of companies in making decisions. The Bank's Credit Committee reviews applications and determines the terms of financing at fixed rates. Thus, the bank assumes both credit and interest rate risk. Under the monocredit model, the parent bank acts as the center of profit accumulation for the leasing company.
Private non-bank lessors and state-linked companies (more rarely, bank subsidiaries) tend to borrow from a pool of banks. Lessors have several credit lines opened in a group of banks on competitive terms. Maneuvering between them allows you to avoid restrictions on credit limits and choose the best conditions. The benefits of a strong relationship with multiple lenders include service at affordable rates. Companies that attract loans on competitive terms have their own credit expertise. They autonomously make decisions about clients, have their own risk management system, and often credit committee. Unlike affiliated banking companies, creditors of such lessors take the risk not on a specific lessee, but on the company as a whole.
Credit cost
Under the majority of credit lines, lessors are financed at fixed interest rates (83% of the portfolio), which are not revised during the life of the line. Floating interest rates are valid for 15% debt. In addition, the so-called variable rates are used, they are fixed, while the bank has the right to revise the rate level in the event of significant events. The high share of loans at fixed rates is explained by intra-group financing. Fixed rates are used exclusively in mono-loan models, where lessors are tied to parent bank. If they are removed from the calculation, the share of loans at fixed rates falls to 44%, while the share of loans at floating rates increases to 48%. Thus, on competitive terms, banks shift the interest rate risk to the lessor. The main benchmark for floating rates is the key rate of the Bank of Russia (55% of loans at floating rates).
The weighted average cost of loans for the leasing sector in the first quarter of 2018 was 8.53%. There is a pronounced effect of scale in the cost of loans: as the assets of borrowers increase, other things being equal, interest rates for them decrease. There is a percentage differential between the cost of intra-group financing and the cost of financing on competitive terms: banking subsidiaries are financed at 8%, while non-banking companies are financed at 9%.
Reliability problem
According to the requirements of the Bank of Russia, lenders are required to classify loans to lessors by quality categories. The leasing sector is characterized by a moderate risk with a probability of loss of up to 20%. Banks value their subsidiaries more highly. Apparently, the market for leasing loans is not risk-oriented. An indication of this is the lack of relationship between the interest rate on loans and the quality category, that is, interest rates do not include a premium for credit risk. The anomaly is explained by two factors - intra-group financing and the presence of the state in the capital of large lessors.
For a number of reasons, banks cannot reliably assess the financial position of lessors - those who do not resort to a mono-credit model. The objective limitation is the lack of IFRS accounting in most companies and the uncertainty in the reliability of management reporting. Concealment of the actual quality of the lease portfolio can occur due to a wide range of opportunities for lessors, ranging from restructuring and transferring clients to lease and ending with the classification of bad debts into urgent accounts receivable. Even if the client defaults, the property is transferred to the balance of the lessor, and banks have no formal grounds for recognizing loan impairment. In the absence of allowances for property impairment or valuation allowances, lessors may continue to demonstrate satisfactory credit quality of their assets. The solution to these problems is not only the transfer of lessors to a single chart of accounts for non-credit financial institutions and industry accounting standards of the Bank of Russia, but also the development of specialized indicators of the quality of their portfolios, taking into account the withdrawal of property, its depreciation and sale, as well as the introduction of disclosure requirements, including indicators of property transactions. It is planned that these innovations can be offered after the reform of the leasing market, which is being carried out with the active participation of the Bank of Russia. This will result in an increase in the credit quality of the leasing sector.
One of the new forms of credit relations, which Russian banks are already mastering, is a form of financial lease (leasing). In economically developed countries the share of leasing in investments in fixed assets is approximately 20-30%, while in Russia it does not exceed 15%. The largest Russian leasing companies included in the top leasing companies include VEB-leasing, VTB-leasing, Sberbank Leasing, Gazprombank Leasing.
Leasing relations are regulated by Art. 665 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, according to which, under a financial lease agreement (leasing agreement), the lessor (lessor) undertakes to acquire ownership of the property specified by the lessee (lessee) from a certain seller and provide the lessee with this property for a fee for temporary possession and use for business purposes. A distinction must be made between financial and operating leases. The difference between the two is that a finance lease, unlike an operating lease, transfers all of the existing risks and rewards associated with ownership. Signs of financial lease (leasing) are the following:
Bank loans are the main source of resources for leasing companies, while the share of long-term loans in leasing operations reaches approximately 66%. Lending in the form of financial leasing is carried out by banks in two forms: lending to a leasing company and lending to a leasing transaction. When lending to a leasing company, short-term loans under the break in the document flow between the payments received by the leasing company from lessees and the needs of the leasing company in new funds for new transactions. At the same time, lending is carried out under a credit line and is of a standard nature (see lending under a credit line).
Crediting of a leasing transaction is carried out in the event that the bank accompanies a separate leasing transaction for a large amount or the bank directly participates in financing the transaction within the framework of project finance. The costs and expenses of the credit institution-lessor related to the acquisition of the leased asset are its investment costs, which are accounted for separately.
Leased items transferred to the lessee are accounted for on the off-balance account "Property transferred to the balance of lessees". When the lessee buys out the leased items, its value as of the date of transfer of ownership is debited by the lessor from the off-balance sheet account for accounting for property transferred to the balance of the lessee. In this case, the bank can act both as a party receiving equipment on lease, and as a lessor carrying out a leasing transaction (Fig. 5.1).
Rice. 5.1.
The following documents are used to execute a leasing transaction:
The organization of the leasing process in a leasing transaction consists of the following stages:
Evaluation contributes to the success of the operation economic efficiency leasing operations associated with determining the amount of profit received for all participants in the transaction. To do this, we must first calculate total cost leasing transaction, the financial leasing rate and the amount of expected profit, as well as to compare the cost of equipment under a financial leasing agreement, taking into account tax deductions with the cost of the same equipment purchased on credit.
It is important to calculate the term of a leasing transaction, which is determined by the service life of the purchased equipment, the period of its depreciation, the cycle of the possible appearance of an analogue, the level of inflation and its forecast, and the amount of loan interest.
The conclusion of a leasing agreement between a leasing company (or a bank, if the bank provides leasing services) and the lessee is the main, strictly regulated Civil Code of the Russian Federation and federal law dated October 29, 1998 No. 164-FZ "On financial lease (leasing)" document.
The leasing agreement specifies:
Calculation of leasing payments is made in a certain order. Payments in this case can be monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, equal amounts or other amounts as agreed by the parties.
Calculation total amount lease payments are made according to the formula:
where LP is the total amount of lease payments;
JSC - the amount of depreciation due to the lessor in the current year;
PC - payment for the credit resources used by the lessor for the acquisition of property - the object of the leasing agreement;
KV - commission fee to the lessor for the provision of property under a leasing agreement;
DU - payment to the lessor for additional services to the lessee, stipulated by the agreement leasing;
VAT - value added tax paid by the lessee for the services of the lessor.
Depreciation charges are calculated according to the formula:
where B C - book value property - the subject of a leasing agreement, million rubles;
Na - the rate of depreciation, percent in accordance with current legislation.
The payment for the credit resources used by the lessor for the acquisition of property - the subject of the contract is calculated by the formula:
where PC - payment for the used credit resources, million rubles;
STk - rate for a loan, percent per annum.
An example of calculating lease payments. Terms of an agreement:
starting from the first year.
Calculation average annual cost property (million rubles)
Table 1
|
Period |
Price property |
Sum depreciation |
Property value at the end of the year |
Average annual stop- |
|
|
(of the year) |
for the beginning of the year |
onical deductions |
bridge property |
||
Calculation of the total amount of lease payments.
First year: 
Second year: 
The amount of leasing payments annually in equal shares:
table 2
Calculation results (million rubles) 1
|
Period (years) |
Payment for the credit resources used by the lessor for the acquisition of property - the object of the leasing agreement (PC) |
Amount of depreciation charges (JSC) |
Lessor commission (CF) |
Additional services to the lessee (DU) |
VAT calculation base (B) |
Total amount of lease payments (LP) |
|
Leasing has certain advantages. These include:
The disadvantages of leasing include the participation in it of a larger number of business entities than in a conventional transaction purchase and sale. This complicates the practical resolution of possible contradictions that arise between the participants in the leasing transaction. At the same time, more time is needed to prepare this agreement. Also, in the process of implementing a leasing transaction, difficulties arise with the offset and reimbursement of VAT, high transaction risks are formed when long term performance, etc.
Promising directions for the development of types of leasing in Russia can be:
Leasing is an agreement in accordance with which the lessor undertakes to acquire ownership of the property specified by the tenant from a seller specified by him and provide the tenant with this property for a fee for temporary possession and use for business purposes.
The purpose of the task is to describe the leasing participants as independent leasing companies, namely: the characteristics of the bank, the characteristics of the insurance company, the characteristics of the brokerage company.
Leasing operations - operations based on the provision of non-current assets for rent on long term for their industrial use. To non-current assets includes buildings, structures, equipment, vehicles, intellectual property rights.
In leasing, the role of banks is growing. Bank participation can be direct, if it directly leases machinery and equipment for temporary use, and indirect, for example, by providing loans to leasing companies. In this case, the bank acts as a loan provider.
Three persons participate in a classic leasing operation: the lessor, the lessee, and the supplier (property seller). Usually the lessor is commercial Bank, the lessee - enterprises of various forms of ownership, suppliers of property - its manufacturers, supply and marketing, trade and other organizations - owners of property.
The mechanism of the leasing transaction is as follows. The tenant submits an application to the bank for the purchase of equipment. The bank makes an opinion on the solvency of the tenant and the effectiveness of the leasing transaction. After that, the bank finds a supplier and buys equipment. A leasing agreement is drawn up between the bank and the tenant. During the implementation of the leasing agreement, the tenant pays the rent, which includes depreciation, interest on the loan, value added tax.
Advantages of banks when participating in leasing operations:
There are two main methods of raising finance: obtaining a loan and buying property on lease.
To make a decision on the profitability of a loan and leasing for a company, entrepreneur or individual, it is necessary to evaluate the financial parameters of the loan and leasing offer, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each financing option.
Having issued online application on our website you can get leasing offers from several dozen leasing companies and see their comparison by the main parameters:
Registration on the site and receiving leasing offers free.
Despite the fact that when lending for temporary use, both cash (cash form of a loan) and property (commodity form of a loan) can be transferred, in modern economic relations transmission dominates. Money and when using the term "loan, lending" they mean the provision of money by the bank to the borrower.
In the lending segment, there are also offers for accelerated decision-making (the so-called express loans). Expedited consideration of the application is possible by consumer loans and car loans. These types of loans are offered only to individual borrowers. In a relationship legal entities banks do not offer express lending programs.
The subject of leasing can be taken into account on the balance sheet of the leasing company, in which case the obligation to calculate and pay property tax lies with the lessor. If the object of leasing is registered with the traffic police for a leasing company, it pays transport tax. Also, the leasing company can pay for the insurance of the leased asset. Additional costs incurred by the leasing company will be included in the calculation of leasing payments. Equal distribution of expenses for the leasing period will allow the client to reduce the burden of making periodic payments for taxes, insurance, etc.
However, it should be taken into account that in case of reimbursement of additional expenses in leasing payments, it will be necessary to pay VAT on these expenses. If the lessee is a VAT payer, additional VAT as part of payments is not a problem, because VAT will be charged. But for customers who are VAT non-payers, these tax amounts will increase the costs of a leasing transaction.
It is extremely problematic to finance the acquisition of used (BU) property with a loan. Banks finance only the purchase of used cars. Purchasing a used property under leasing is not a big deal. Of course, there are restrictions on the year of release of the subject of leasing, a number of leasing companies do not conclude transactions with used property at all. However, obtaining leasing financing for such a transaction is quite possible.
Leasing companies are corporate clients who purchase equipment and machinery from suppliers for significant amounts. Suppliers often provide discounts to leasing companies. It is especially common to provide discounts for car leasing. In some cases, the size of the discount can be quite significant, which makes it possible to offer leasing programs with zero appreciation (the sum of the discounted car price and leasing interest is equal to the price of the car in the showroom, which makes it possible to speak of a zero appreciation of the car for the lessee).
With extensive experience, knowledge and business connections, the employees of the leasing company control and resolve various issues related to the acquisition of the subject of leasing and the implementation of the leasing transaction.
Such questions may include:
In addition to the advantages of leasing, there are certain disadvantages that must also be taken into account when choosing a financing method.
During the term of the lease agreement, the lessee, not being the owner of the leased property, can use it in strict accordance with the terms of the lease agreement. Any actions in relation to the leased property (change of the place of operation, sublease, etc.) must be agreed with the leasing company.
In case of violation of the conditions for the operation of the property (as well as other conditions of the leasing agreement), the leasing company has the right to withdraw the object of leasing.
Also, the lessee cannot provide the subject of leasing as collateral when obtaining a loan.
The lessor, being the owner of the leased property, may pledge it under its loan agreements. At the same time, loans can be obtained both to finance a transaction with this lessee, and for other purposes (including financing transactions with other clients).
In the event that a leasing company has financial problems, creditors can withdraw to apply to the court with an application for the withdrawal of the leased property. Despite the fact that the property will be encumbered with a leasing agreement and the lessee will have a formal right to use the leased asset, such circumstances may complicate the operation of the leased property.
When concluding a leasing agreement, it is necessary to pay attention not only to the terms of leasing, but also to the stability and reliability of the leasing company.
Leasing payments, unlike loan payments, are subject to VAT in full. This circumstance is not a problem in the case when the lessee is a VAT payer and can present the paid tax to offset. However, if the customer is exempt from VAT (for example, uses simplified system taxation (STS), is individual etc.), VAT paid as part of leasing payments increases the costs under the leasing agreement.
There are leasing companies that are VAT non-payers and specialize in providing leasing to enterprises on the simplified tax system, leasing medical equipment, etc. But, unfortunately, the number of such companies in the total number of lessors is extremely small.
As can be seen from the above, leasing, as a method of financing investments, has its advantages and disadvantages, the importance and significance of which may be different for each transaction and a particular client.
Now there is a tendency of some revival of the debt market. In the article, the author substantiated the need for constructive and mutually beneficial cooperation between leasing companies and banking institutions.
Dizzy with success
"Stakhanovskiy" growth of the Russian economy during recent years accelerated and stimulated by a nutritious cocktail of high resource prices and cheap available funds on international financial markets. The Russian leasing market component economy with appetite absorbed the fruits of its growth and developed at a pace that was almost several times faster. The last pre-crisis season of 2006-2007 was especially successful in this regard. Russian leasing was fueled and stimulated by cheap and affordable lending, and by the beginning of the crisis, however paradoxical it may sound, it was held hostage by this very cheapness and affordability.
Cheap loans unnecessarily accelerated market competition, forcing companies to "swallow" much more than they really could, than business technology, management quality, infrastructure, risk management and financial management allowed.
Cheap but short loans caused debt dependence and an extensive build-up of the borrowing portfolio, coupled with a similar build-up of risky and low-yield transactions (for the sake of volume/portfolio). Many companies created new debt because subsequent debt was possible and available, and often long-term leasing contracts were financed from short- or medium-term borrowings. To this was often added the absence of additional collateral, active promotion to economically risky regions, underestimation of advances, flaws in registration - these are the main features of the pre-crisis leasing market, especially in mass retail segments.
Finally, as Dmitry Leletsky, the author of the www.unlease.ru Internet project, rightly notes, cheap loans "promoted investment in assets with low investment characteristics." As it turned out, it was during the crisis that many asset classes (commercial vehicles, processing and processing equipment, etc.) with developed secondary markets (seemingly reliable and all-accepting) began to lose value faster and more non-market assets. In the hope of a secondary market, the risks of liquid assets were taken into account poorly and were not properly reflected in the price of loans for lessors and the cost of leasing.
Unfortunately, the dizziness from success struck not only leasing companies, but also banks, and at the moment when the financial and economic crisis became an objective reality, the latter decided to “cure” the problem in the most radical way - by stopping financing as such.
Blood on the mirror
This poetic subtitle, perhaps not very characteristic of an article in a serious methodological journal, did not appear by chance and, perhaps, quite accurately reflects the relationship between banks and leasing companies in modern conditions. Everyone knows the characteristics of the banking system as a circulatory system that ensures the movement of cash flows and, as a result, life and normal functioning. market economy or an economy trying to be one. Leasing companies are not just and not only financial intermediaries or credit resale enterprises, but the middle link between banking system and enterprises of the real sector, a mirror that simultaneously reflects the phenomena that take place both in production and in banks. Moreover, we can safely say that the nature of the work of leasing companies directly shows the real state of the country's economy in all its diversity.
Just as blood spreads over a mirror surface without being absorbed into it, so the credit resources of Russian banks from the autumn of 2008 to the spring of 2009 practically ceased to feed the leasing industry. The death of the debt market for leasing companies has become a reality. Simultaneously with Russian credit sources, the world ones also dried up. Financing, especially for large-scale, complex-structured projects, has become much more difficult.
Theoretically, only the funds of state-owned banks remained available - VEB, the Russian Development Bank, Sberbank, VTB. However, these credit organizations they are in no hurry to allocate funds even to reliable and stable lessors. These banks, however, as well as other credit institutions, are rightly afraid of the risks arising from the precarious state of the country's economy and the consequences of the recession, which manifests itself in the sequestration of many enterprises of their investment programs and no need to upgrade fixed assets of production.
It is also worth noting here another consequence of the crisis: banks stopped taking risks on leasing companies and projects (in the form of an assignment of the right to demand lease payments) and began to demand guarantees from the client.
However, now we can state a trend towards some revival of the debt market. A small number of banks that have accumulated excess liquidity and are no longer interested in earning on foreign exchange market by “playing against the ruble”, they again began to show interest in the real sector of the economy and in leasing companies closely connected with this sector.
Don't get away from each other
Loans from Russian banks throughout the life of Russian leasing have been, are and will be the main source of financing for leasing operations, forming a share of more than 50% in comparison with other sources of financing - promissory notes, bonds, own funds, customer advances, etc. This indicator is confirmed by the data of the annual research of the leasing market, conducted by the Russian Association of Leasing Companies. The figure shows the structure of financing of leasing companies in 2008, where the share of Russian banks in the structure of financing of leasing operations was 54.51%. At the same time, a similar annual study of the leasing market, conducted rating agency"Expert RA" shows well the crisis trend towards an increase compared to 2007 in the structure of financing leasing transactions in the share of own funds of leasing companies and customer advances (Table 1).
Table 1. Dynamics of changes in the share of advances and own funds in 2007-2008 (%)
At the end of 2008, representatives of many market-leading leasing companies indicated that the reduction in lending to leasing operations was proportional to the overall reduction in funding in all possible directions. In general, this remark is true: leasing is no worse, and in many ways even better than other areas for lending, and the “flat trend” noted by experts has a number of specific reasons, which, unfortunately, are not understood by everyone. Russian banks. Let's talk about these grounds in a little more detail.
First, leasing as a direction for long-term banking investments, is in most cases one of the most stable and risk-free. This is mainly due to the transfer characteristic and mandatory for leasing and the retention of the title of ownership by the lessor to the transferred property for the entire duration of the contract. In practice, thanks to this, the bank hedges a certain share of its risks in case of problems with the lessee and is not left alone with often (especially for large, special projects) “incomprehensible” property for him, complex equipment, the issues of seizure and sale of which the bank is usually not used to dealing with.
The leasing company, being the owner of the transferred property, can minimize risks, for example, through repurchase agreements with a supplier or manufacturer. Such an agreement can be implemented in the event that the client-lessee is completely unable to fulfill its obligations. In any case, a professional leasing company, as the owner of the transferred property and in fact the final defendant for it to the bank, is much more flexible in terms of methods and possibilities for repaying credit debt than an ordinary client. To put it simply, the "jumper" between the bank and the enterprise in the form of a large and professional lessor is an additional and tangible insurance for any credit institution.
Secondly, a professional leasing company may be necessary, useful and interesting for the bank as an expert in structuring projects and a "translator" who agrees on the specifics and features investment projects client-lessee with the requirements and regulations of the financing bank. Moreover, this procedure applies not only to large, large-scale, multibillion-dollar transactions, but also to "retail" transactions of small and medium volumes ranging from 5 to 100 million rubles.
In both cases, a professional lessor is the coordinator and controller of the entire project, combining the financial model of the transaction with supply and construction (if necessary), working through and closing all possible risks- bank, client, supplier and, of course, their own. Also, a professional lessor is also a valuable source of methodological assistance to the bank, capable of creating effective models for evaluating leasing projects and lessees that meet the requirements and conditions of the bank.
So, in our view, it is the above aspects that are the basis for constructive and mutually beneficial cooperation between Russian banks and leasing companies.
Issues and problems of evaluation
Despite the above, the leasing company, first of all, is perceived by the bank as a borrower who has come for bank money and who must be evaluated, more precisely, attempted to be evaluated. Valuation problems were relevant even before the crisis, when the leasing market was growing at a fantastic pace (Table 2), and they have become even more relevant now, when leasing is in a crisis, and banks are tightening requirements for all potential loan applicants.
Table 2. Development of the leasing market in 2005-2008 (billion rubles)
Difficulties in valuation of leasing companies stem from the lack of a generally accepted valuation methodology as such. Among the banks there is also no unity on this issue. Someone is focused only on the assessment of the leasing company, others, on the contrary, analyze the lessee in detail, believing that the timely repayment of loans depends on his solvency, others follow the dangerous path of evaluating the transaction based on the analysis of the transferred property and try to analyze its long-term liquidity.
Russian standard accounting- the main document and source of information about the state of the business - in matters of assessment, the assistant is bad, since it is the same for a leasing company, which, for example, for a pipe rolling plant. Although, as we understand, these businesses are not just different, but conceptually different. Lessors can offer customers different types of leasing, which are reflected in different ways in financial reporting. Significant for other industries indicators in the case of leasing also can not always serve as a benchmark for banks. As you know, most lessors have a low amount of equity capital and a significant amount of external debt, while revenue and net profit may vary depending on the schedules for the receipt of lease payments and the specifics of accounting for advances. All this forces banks to take a closer look at the structure and volume of cash flows of borrowers-lessors, and in dynamics for a year, and sometimes for several years. Finally, RAS may hold other surprises.
Thus, the main trap for the leasing business in RAS in late 2008 and early 2009 was the peculiarities of reflecting leasing transactions with a foreign currency component in it. As part of Russian standard reporting, lessors were required to revalue at the current rate all liabilities denominated in foreign currency. However, lease items must be displayed in rubles and not revalued in foreign currency. As a result, against the backdrop of a decrease exchange rates, those leasing companies that had on their balance sheet a significant amount foreign exchange transactions, faced a significant imbalance between the volume of liabilities and assets - imaginary losses and received, at the end of the year, again an imaginary loss-making balance.
The currency trap of RAS is especially unpleasant because it can block access to bank lending and negatively affect the valuation of the leasing company by the bank. The borrower's loss-making balance (even an imaginary one) forces the bank, acting in accordance with and on the basis of RAS, to reserve a certain amount of funds for it, possibly quite significant if the borrower takes out a loan for a large leasing project. This, in turn, affects the price of money (credit) for the leasing company - in the direction of its increase. A loss-making balance for many banks, especially during a crisis, is generally an unequivocal stop factor and a reason for refusing to lend. Finally, many loan agreements provide for the possibility of early withdrawal of loans if the volume net assets the borrower will be reduced to a certain value. Even if the leasing company succeeds in proving its reliability to the bank and approving the attraction of funds, the very process of approvals and explanations may be unreasonably long and lead to the cessation of the leasing project.
By the way, this currency problem is absent in IFRS, but, on the one hand, very few Russian leasing companies have IFRS reports, and on the other hand, IFRS in the regulatory sense cannot serve as an unambiguous confirmation of the stability of the lessor's business for the bank. In other words, it is not worth waiting for an easy road to loans, even with good IFRS statements in hand, at least until Russian economy is not revived, and investment in fixed assets will not resume. I would like to believe that by this happy day, the processes of interaction between banks and lessors, cleansed and ennobled by the crisis (mutual, it must be admitted), will acquire a systemic character based on the observance of the following principles.
Firstly, the leasing company will be perceived not only as an on-lending company and, in this regard, a source of additional risks, but as a complex integrator of investment projects, providing risk protection with its experience and services.
Second, leasing companies will improve their financial planning and management models. cash flows and become more professional as lenders themselves.
Thirdly, credit institutions will move to practice integrated assessment leasing project, where the risks and ways to close them are not focused only on the leasing company, or only on its client, or on property, but are distributed and, accordingly, closed depending on the specifics of the project itself, its conditions. The implementation of this principle depends on the development by the participants of the leasing market of mutually convenient and acceptable methods for evaluating projects, including operational ones, which will facilitate access not only to one-time loans under large-scale projects, but also to credit lines under standardized bulk transactions.
