Behavioral economy: population in the credit services market

The article discusses topical issues related to the current trends in the field of lending to population in Russia. The purpose of the work is to identify possible risks of individuals' actions in the market of credit services on the basis of analysis of statistical and sociological data. Based on the general scientific dialectic approaches used by the authors, the article shows dynamics of growth in the banks' loan portfolio, growth in lending volumes (banks and microfinance organizations), as well as households' debt from 2013 to 2019 in rubles and foreign currency (in general and in mortgages). Russian macro-regions are ranked by absolute indicator of debt and by its growth rate. Opportunities and risks have been identified for borrowers wishing to take advantage of the benefits provided by the State effective from April 2020 (refinancing, credit holidays). There were assessed the measures applied by the State, in particular, credit holidays for individuals and restrictions for banks in issuing loans through introduction of a mandatory debt load indicator, which will contribute to improvement of the current situation with huge debt and to reduction of social risks. Although in the long run - in terms of the overall impact on the country's economy - a reduction in public borrowing may reduce the contribution of consumer credit to economic growth and slow it down. It is concluded that despite the measures taken by the State, the existing level of the population borrowing is a great danger due to the reduction of income as the economic consequence of the coronavirus pandemic.