The consumer lending company of UniCredit Bulbank - UniCredit Consumer Financing, reported a fivefold increase of the share of remotely signed loan agreements. This observation is on the basis of data from an analysis of the following two periods: 01.09.2018  - 31.07.2019 and 01.08.2019  - 31.05.2020.

The survey made by UniCredit Consumer Financing takes into account the following factors:  age, income, education, gender, employment and length of service, average interest rate, amount of the installment, term of the loan and product type.

The analysis indicates that almost half of the customers who signed their loan agreements remotely are between 30 and 39 years old. Customers who prefer to sign their agreements on paper are mostly over 50 years old. However, their share is similar to that of the groups 40-49 and 30-39 years of age.

Half of the customers who signed documents for a loan at a bank branch have an income in the range between BGN 500 and BGN 1000. The shares of customers who prefer to sign the agreement remotely and have an income of BGN 500 - BGN 1000 and BGN 1000 - BGN 1500 are very similar, growing significantly compared with the previous analyzed period. Customers who signed their agreements remotely and have an income above BGN 2500, have a share of 10%.

For both types of signing, the predominant part of the customers are with a general secondary education qualification. Nevertheless, there is an increase compared with the previous period in the share of the remote signing of consumer loans by customers with general secondary education qualification and a slight decrease in the share of customers with a higher education qualification.

In terms of the criteria of gender, type of employment and length of service, no particular changes are observed in either of the analyzed periods. Men with permanent employment who are working for their current employer between 1 and 3 years represent the highest share in the core customer base.

The analysis also shows that since introducing the possibility for customers to use a digital overdraft in November 2019, the number of customers who use the service has doubled.

The survey shows that customers who sign their loan agreement remotely most often make transactions in supermarkets - one third of all transactions. A significant share, around 10% of the transactions represent payments for utility services and payments at petrol stations.

The summarized data outline the following profile of the customer who prefers to use a digital loan:

• An unmarried man who is 30 - 39 years old, with a general secondary education qualification, permanent employment, with an income in the range between BGN 500 and BGN 1500 and working for the current employer between 1 and 3 years. The preferred monthly installment is about BGN 100 and BGN 200 and a term of the loan of 12 months where the average financed amount is about BGN 5000.

The profile of the customer who prefers to sign an agreement on paper at a branch of UniCredit Bulbank is:

• A married man who is over 50 years old (a similar share to that of the age groups 30 - 39 and 40 - 49 years of age), with a general secondary education qualification, permanent employment, a monthly income in the range between BGN 500 and BGN 1000 and working for the current employer between 1 and 3 years. The preferred monthly installment is about BGN 100 and BGN 200 and a term of the loan of 13-24 months, where the average financed amount is about BGN 8000.

The analysis shows that consumer behaviours are permanently changing, leading to more and more customers preferring to use the digital channels of UniCredit Bulbank. Therefore, in the last few months the whole team of UniCredit Bulbank AD has been working actively to optimise the digital and remote services it offers to its customers even further.