No 2 (2021)

Current conditions for conducting financial and economic activities create the necessity to develop a methodology for the financial stability assessment of both legal entities and individuals. It is related to the implementation of entrepreneurial activities by physical entities as individual entrepreneurs, the delivery of professional services as self-employed, and the conclusion of outsourcing agreements. However, the analysis of approaches to the definition of the concept of financial stability of individuals allowed concluding that this issue has not received proper theoretical understanding. The gap between the theory of finance and the practice of conducting financial and economic activities formed the goal of this study: to define and develop criteria for the individual's financial stability assessment. The paper analyzes the approaches to the definition of both the financial stability of a commercial organization and the methods for its assessment and compares the financial and economic activities of legal and physical entities. The paper defines the financial stability of a physical entity, which is understood as its ability to fulfill its obligations at its own expense in the long term. The author developed absolute and relative indicators for the individual's financial stability assessment. The author uses the saving rate, the market value of a property, and the volume of long-term loans and borrowings as absolute indicators of the financial stability of an individual. The market level of the individual's financial leverage and the ratio of fixed financial costs coverage are used as relative indicators. The application of the developed absolute and relative indicators for assessing the financial stability of individuals will rationalize the process of selecting counterparties operating as individuals, improve the quality of financial monitoring of the activities of individual entrepreneurs, and reduce the risks of credit institutions when granting loans to individuals.

The e-trading market is a relatively new phenomenon for the Russian economy. Due to the development of Internet technologies in the country and the growth in the number of Internet users, strong momentum has been formed for the active development of this sector of the economy. Despite the economic crisis in the country, this economic sector continues to develop actively, which allows concluding that it is potentially attractive. Aggravation of competition requires a business to search for new possibilities for attracting and retaining consumers. The authors consider the prospects of e-trading development, the concept of e-trading, and its difference from e-commerce. The paper presents the classification of e-trading business models in their relation to a management entity. The study identified the positive and negative factors of e-commerce development. The paper considers the prospective directions of e-trading market development in the interrelation with logistics. The study showed the dependence of e-trading development on the logistic processes, macroeconomic factors, and economic infrastructure as a whole. The interdisciplinarity of electronic trade, its development at the confluence of several sciences allows assuming the dependence of the processes of the good creation and realization on the possibilities of marketing, logistics, and the formats of goods delivery to an end consumer. Logistics allows overcoming many constraints, such as doubts about the reliability of a supplier, the risks of non-fulfillment of delivery deadlines, loss of a parcel, and the doubts about the compliance of the selected product with expectations (the inability to examine an ordered product visually). At the same time, the sphere of logistics and e-trading have a mutual positive impact on each other, since the active development of logistics is primarily caused by the e-trading development: the creation of new forms of goods delivery and consolidation of legal entities to ensure the delivery goods are influenced by the development of e-trading.

Lending to the population is an essential part of the country’s economic system, its development in the global financial market. Due to the steady downward trend in economic growth and real incomes of the population, the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the Russian Federation in 2020, the issue of fulfillment by the borrowers their obligations to banks became relevant. Many consumers of credit services were unable to fulfill their obligations in full and in due time, which led commercial banks to the most significant risk - credit one. The study considers the main aspects of the functioning of the Russian consumer lending market in the context of the lockdown of the global economy, analyzes the factors, which determined both the growth and contraction of the market under the pandemic influence. The study assessed the dynamic changes in key indicators determining the state of this economic sector in 2020. The authors analyzed the dynamics of granting retail credits and the dynamics of overdue debt. The paper considered the level of the debt burden of the population and the indicators of personal credit rating of borrowers - the main factors influencing the favorable decision on loan granting. Based on the study results, the authors conclude that the pandemic period did not cause severe damage to the retail lending sector. As the main trends of the current year, the study highlights toughening of the requirements on the part of commercial banks to borrowers, an increase in interest rates on credit products, and the improvement of payment discipline in the regions.