‘According to our estimates, Sodeystviye consumer cooperative’s target audience largely consists of socially vulnerable local strata, mostly pensioners and the working class. The cooperative’s customers have already become proverbial for their low financial literacy. The thing is, the average interest rate most Russian banks offer on their deposits comes to no more than 12% a year, while the maximum interest that Sodeystviye promises is 28% a year. Given today’s lack of stability on the stock market, this kind of profitability is impossible to achieve even for unit investment trusts that are generally more lucrative than deposits but offer their customers 20% a year at the most,’ FINAM Management Company’s analyst Konstantin Romanov said to UrBC.

Konstantin Romanov says profitability depends on the risk level, so if Sodeystviye claims to provide the annual interest rate of 28%, the risk of not getting one’s money back is very high: people might simply stop borrowing money from the cooperative. Besides, the company’s target audience might actually find it hard to find enough money for the down payment that comes to 10,000 RUR or 100,000 RUR.