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Japanese Issue Car Loans in Russia
The first major foreign carmaker's captive bank, Toyota Bank, has begun operating in Russia. Analysts call that the bank's credit services standard, but the Russian subsidiary of Toyota Motor may claim a significant share of the crediting for Toyota sales. Other automotive giants will open captive banks in Russia as well (Chrysler and BMW have already announced plans.), threatening to take a significant share of the auto crediting market away from Russian universal banks. More than 70 percent of new foreign cars are sold on credit in Russia.
The first two branches of the Japanese carmaker's bank are already open at Toyota and Lexus on the prosperous Rublevskoe Highway. By the beginning of next year, another 16 branches are to open in Moscow and the bank will appear in other regions next year. The bank received a license from the Central Bank for banking operations without the right to accept deposits from the public in June. Toyota Kreditbank GmbH owns 99 percent of the stock in the bank, with 1 percent belonging to Toyota Leasing GmbH. More than 44 percent of all Toyota and Lexus cars are sold through Toyota Kreditbank in Germany. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toyota Financial Services, which is owned by Toyota Motors.
At present, Toyota Bank only provides five-year credits for the purchase of new Toyota or Lexus models with a 20-percent down payment at 9-9.5 percent interest on hard currency and 11-11.5 percent interest on rubles. There is a $50-100 commission on the purchase of Toyotas, and $100-200 on Lexus. Since the bank cannot open individual accounts until it has operated on the Russian market for two years, payments on credits can be made through automatic tellers or Societe Generale Vostok Banks.
Raiffeisen Bank, International Moscow Bank, MDM Bank and Vneshtorgbank also work with Toyota. Only Raiffeisen has branches in dealerships, as Toyota Bank will, and Raiffeisen has them only in Moscow. Raiffeisen board member Roman Vorobyev acknowledged that Toyota Bank may reduce Raiffeisen's competitiveness. “But we have a few years ahead,” he said. “In that time, we can compensate by strengthening our opposition in the regions.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 11, 2007
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Photo: Reuters
