How do online lending companies face the imposed strict regulations?

Five months after the introduction of fairly strict government regulations, the volume of loans issued by some online lending companies has significantly decreased, along with the number of people they employ. The new regulations, which apply only to online lending companies and not to commercial banks or microfinance organizations, limit the maximum interest rate on loans as well as the fines and commissions which can be charged.

In order to continue operations, Online Credit laid off 60% of their workforce and are considering transferring capital to other countries with not so strict regulations. They have also begun only issuing loans to more solvent customers in order to reduce risks. Banking expert David Kikvidze noted that the regulations have had a rather negative impact from an economic point of view. In addition to the massive staff cuts, online credit companies have reduced the issuance of loans and now pay less into the state budget.

Source: commersant.ge