THE ESSENCE OF THE UNSECURED CONSUMER LENDING MARKET, ITS STRUCTURE AND MAIN SUBJECTS

Abstract

The development of the credit services market is one of the indicators of economic development of any country. Today, this market is developing rapidly around the world, and lending services are among the most important in the income genera-tion of financial institutions. One of the main types of lending is unsecured consumer lending. The article examines the essence of this type of lending, identifies its main characteristics. For this purpose the content of the category was analyzed, scientific approaches to the consideration of its essence were singled out, the analysis of inter-pretations of this definition in normative-legal acts of the domestic legislation of Ukraine was carried out. Defining the essence of the category "consumer credit" allowed to establish a complex system of types of such credit and specify the role of unsecured consumer lending in this system. As a result, the author's interpretation of this type of loan was formulated: unsecured consumer credit - one of the types of consumer credit, a set of relations between the credit institu-tion and individuals on lending in the national currency to purchase consumer goods or to finance consumer needs on the borrower's needs, which are specified in the written loan agreement, and subject to compliance with the principles of maturi-ty, payment, intended use and return. The article specifies the main subjects of unsecured consumer lending, which include creditors (banks and non-bank fi-nancial institutions) and borrowers (individuals). The objects of this type of lending are tangible goods (electronics, house-hold appliances, furniture, clothing, building materials, equipment, etc.); services (treatment and rehabilitation, payment for training and refresher courses, tourism, construction, notary, consulting services, etc.); cash (to finance the current needs of the borrower, replenish its working capital). The peculiarities of unsecured consumer lending include the following: lack of collateral; convenience, speed and simplicity of design; small loan amounts; interest-free loans; high cost of loans