The Central Bank of the Russian Federation has recommended that lenders defer debt payments from businesses that lost merchandise on Wildberries
The Central Bank of Russia has recommended that banks, microfinance organizations, and other lenders support entrepreneurs whose goods were destroyed as a result of attacks on Wildberries’ logistics centers.
This involves restructuring loans for small and medium-sized businesses without charging fines or penalties. In this way, the Russian regulator has effectively called on lenders not to demand immediate repayment of debts from entrepreneurs who lost their goods in the destroyed warehouses.
Since July 18, Ukrainian drones have attacked 20 large Wildberries warehouses in Russia. The RWB Group, which operates the marketplace, reported that the goods of hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs had been destroyed.
According to an estimate by Sergey Semko, a leading analyst at Data Insight, the total losses incurred by Wildberries sellers as a result of the attacks could range from 215 to 280 billion rubles.
The calculation of losses is still ongoing. Meanwhile, Wildberries is already paying compensation to affected sellers; however, in many cases, the amount does not exceed 10% of the value of the goods stored in the marketplace’s warehouses.
By August 10, the Russian government and the Central Bank were to present additional measures to support entrepreneurs who suffered losses as a result of strikes on logistics infrastructure.
As a reminder, sales of military goods on Wildberries plummeted following Ukrainian attacks.
The Russian marketplace Wildberries plans to launch a network of “partner hubs” for storing goods as part of its support for sellers and owners of order pickup points.
Attacks on Wildberries could exacerbate Russia’s economic problems.
