Tinkoff’s mortgage loan offering is the first of its kind in Russia: the process will take place entirely online, from paperwork to credit issuance. Since Tinkoff has always been branchless, customers will not need to visit a brick-and-mortar location at any stage of the transaction, including when applying for electronic signatures.
First, Tinkoff customers will be able to refinance mortgage loans extended by other banks. Then, by the end of 2022, Tinkoff plans to launch mortgage loans for primary and secondary housing. The refinancing and lending process will be extremely simple and 100% digital, leveraging Tinkoff’s 15-year track record of providing products and services online.
As part of its mortgage offering, Tinkoff provides full-service support at every stage of buying or refinancing a property, including making arrangements with Russia’s Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography (Rosreestr). Customers do not have to visit a Multifunctional Public Services Centre, which is normally standard practice, as Tinkoff handles their mortgage registration while also ensuring that all payments between the buyer and seller are carried out in a secure manner.
“Our customers are at the heart of the Tinkoff ecosystem. It is them we have in mind when creating new products to meet their needs as fully as possible and help make their lives easier and more comfortable. Mortgage lending is part of that approach. We aim to offer our customers a truly convenient way to obtain a mortgage loan, refinance their debt, and reduce their regular payments. As usual for Tinkoff, this requires no visit to the bank: we will take care of everything, and if we need to meet with the customer to issue a digital signature, our representative will arrive at any time and place that best fits the customer’s schedule. We are now beginning to extend mortgage refinancing options to our customers, with more than 500,000 people already covered through our mobile app. In the first few days of offering this service, we have already received more than 2,000 applications, which is a testament to the strong demand that we see for our fully digital and highly convenient product. We plan to start issuing mortgage loans for housing in the primary and secondary markets by the end of this year.” — Stanislav Bliznyuk, Chairman of the Management Board at Tinkoff Bank
All mortgage documents will be signed electronically, using an enhanced qualified electronic signature, issued by the bank and delivered to customers by a Tinkoff representative at the time and place of the customer’s choice.
The benefits of refinancing a mortgage loan with Tinkoff include:
- Easy application process: customers only need to provide the address of the property in question;
- Shortest approval period on the market;
- No visit to the bank needed at any stage. A Tinkoff representative will meet with the customer to issue an electronic signature (to be able to execute deals remotely) at a time and place chosen by the customer;
- No property valuation report needed as the bank does not inspect the properties in question;
- Low fixed interest rate for the entire refinancing period: the rate stays unchanged during the time that customers repay their existing mortgage loan;
- New approach to insurance: there is no need to make a large lump sum payment to have one’s apartment insured. The insurance fee (only 0.15% per annum) will be charged monthly as part of the customer’s regular payment. This offers more customer value compared to a single payment for the entire year, and the insurance fee will decrease as customers repay the outstanding amount;
- Fast response from the bank: Tinkoff will prepare any document that customers may need quickly and free of charge;
- Free Tinkoff Black card issued to mortgage customers, with no fee charged throughout the mortgage period;
- ESG compliance: Tinkoff promotes a responsible approach to resource use by offering a paperless customer experience.
Mortgage loan refinancing is currently available to select customers, and will be made available to all Tinkoff customers by the end of Q1 2022. The refinancing rate starts at 8.9%, with a maximum loan amount of 30 million rubles and a refinancing period of up to 30 years. In the first stage of the project, refinancing options will cover the secondary housing market only.
Tinkoff started issuing its own mortgage loans in June 2021, when it unveiled a programme for the Group’s employees and extended more than 1 billion rubles for the purchase of completed properties.
To launch its mortgage offering, Tinkoff leveraged its experience in extending secured digital loans (using real estate or cars as collateral), which the bank introduced in 2019. These services are designed to spare customers the need to visit a bank. Tinkoff is currently Russia’s leading bank in terms of the size of its secured loan portfolio and the number of secured loans that it has provided.
