Media information support of bank's credit activity: themes and key meanings

Kuzin Alexander Dmitrievich Graduate of the Faculty of Economics, Master in Management, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Entrepreneur. 117418, Russia, Moscow, Novocheremushkinskaya str., 44 z1587963@gmail.com

Introduction and problem statement

In modern conditions of competition and socio-political cataclysms, media activity to promote certain services and products requires special attention. This situation is also relevant for banking activities aimed at a mass audience, in particular, for lending to the population. This type of banking activity is associated with the fact that, on the one hand, the bank seeks to cover as much of the population as possible with lending. On the other hand, the content of the texts is quite complex, saturated with terminology that requires explanation and interpretation. G. V. Lazutina believes that "the terms denote different characteristics of these realities" ^{[1, p. 44]}. It is known that financial documents that are required to be signed are often so difficult to understand that they annoy the audience. Therefore, the bank's media information policy related to the text support of lending should be based on the semantic interpretation of key concepts, their intelligible and unobtrusive explanation to the mass audience in specialized media texts. According to E. L. Vartanova, "the media text differs from other types of texts and integrates a number of features — the targeting of a mass audience, journalism, characterized as belonging to the texts of the sphere of functioning of ideas in society, and as a result — its existence in the social space" ^{[2, p. 9]}. As G.N. Trofimova emphasizes, "any media message carries information that is embedded in it in order to convey meanings that can become knowledge. Obtaining such knowledge from the content of the media text becomes the most important need of a modern media recipient" ^[3].

Credit risk as a subject of media coverage

The need to ensure the effective functioning of banks in the conditions of high dynamics of development and transformation of the modern market environment associated with increased competition in domestic and foreign markets, the emergence of new and significant modification of existing factors affecting banking activities, naturally leads to the actualization of the tasks of managing relevant risks. The coverage of these issues in the media is the most important principle of the management of which media texts become a tool within the framework.

Among the totality of banking risks, one of the central places is occupied by credit risk, which accompanies credit operations and is the fundamental basis of all banking activities. A large number of specialized texts covering the credit activities of banks are functioning in the media space. Moreover, a significant part of them are texts aimed at a mass audience, since lending is a key area of interaction with the population.

Risk is an integral component of banking activity, as well as any other financial and economic activity in which management decisions are influenced by a large number of various factors and actions of counterparties, which are difficult to predict exhaustively and with a high degree of reliability. In particular, this is a factor of accessibility and clarity of information, the presentation of which is inevitably accompanied by a large amount of special vocabulary. It is with uncertainty, or with probabilistic processes caused by the severity of accurate prediction of the course of events in the future, as a rule, that risk is associated as a characteristic of any type of activity. The interpretation of the concept of "risk" obviously needs to be detailed.

The analysis of theoretical sources allows us to note that there is still no unified approach to the category of "risk" in scientific research. Clarification of the place and significance of credit risk in the system of banking risks, first of all, involves the formation of a clear categorical and conceptual apparatus, that is, the establishment of a meaningful content of the definition of the definition of "credit risk", based on general scientific concepts formed by domestic and foreign scientists. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to investigate the logic of the origin of the concept of risk, its essence and content.

In Russian, the word "risk" has a certain lexical and semantic meaning: 1) the possibility of danger, failure; 2) an action at random in the hope of a successful outcome. In modern domestic and foreign studies, there is no single approach to the definition of risk as an economic category. In general, summarizing the existing views on this problem, we can talk about the existence of the following two directions in the interpretation of this concept:

- the "resultant" direction, the supporters of which, when determining the risk, proceed primarily from the result of the event (success or failure), while the risk is usually understood as the possibility of an adverse event ^{[4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]};

- the "process" direction, in which the definition of risk generalizes the passage of an integral process, starting from the action of the factors of the formation of a risk situation and ending with obtaining a result due to its existence ^{[10, 11, 12]}.

Problems of interpretation of the concept of "credit risks"

The current ambiguity in the interpretation of the substantive and essential understanding of the category "risk" is associated with an attempt to generalize in it the totality of heterogeneous factors of danger and uncertainty and all their possible consequences for certain types of activities, to combine various, often radically different, scientific approaches to its interpretation. It is necessary to clarify the lexical and semantic meanings of the concepts of danger and uncertainty. The word "danger" in Russian has the meaning "potential source of damage; possibility, threat of disaster; possibility of harm". The word "uncertainty" is a complete antonym of the concept of "confidence" and means "confusion, doubt, distrust."

In the modern theory of risk, two opposing views on the interpretation of this category can be clearly distinguished – the classical one, which is presented by such scientists as J. Mole and I. Senior, and neoclassical, presented by A. Marshall, A. Pigou, J. Keynes, the fundamental difference in which is due to the different perception of the nature of the relationship between uncertainty and risk.

According to the postulates of classical theory, the source of risk is uncertainty, which is a state in which it is not possible to achieve objective quantification of the expected situation. Risk is considered here as a function of direct dependence: with increasing uncertainty, the level of risk increases and vice versa. At the same time, these two concepts are closely interrelated with the time horizon: with increasing duration of the period, uncertainty and risks increase.

Thus, within the framework of the classical approach, "risk" and "uncertainty" are identified to a certain extent and are considered as the probability of losses and costs as a result of choosing a solution and strategy of activity. Under conditions of uncertainty, the final result can be predicted only approximately by taking one of the potentially possible values.

In turn, representatives of the neoclassical risk theory see a difference between risk and uncertainty in the fact that risk is usually accompanied by the emergence of various characteristics of uncontrolled variables, whereas uncertainty is not typical ^[13]. In particular, in accordance with the theory of F. According to Knight, risk is the end result of a certain activity that can be measured using the methods of probability theory and the law of large numbers. If such calculations cannot be carried out, then the result of the activity is an uncertainty ^[14]. This approach is valid only from the standpoint of mathematical calculations, whereas in practice, in situations involving risk, it is impossible to calculate the probability of a result.

Comparing the classical and neoclassical approaches, it should be noted that the views of the neoclassics are a logical development of the classical ones. Thus, the neoclassical theory assumes that the genetic roots of risk initially arise in uncertainty, which is a special objective state, which subsequently causes a subjective perception of danger – uncertainty. That is, its supporters, as a rule, only clarify the mechanism of the causal relationship between uncertainty and risk based on the identification of the primary causes of the formation of a state of uncertainty.

Accordingly, uncertainty or danger can be defined only for a certain type of activity and from the point of view of the relevant subject and management objects. The disclosure of the uncertainty or probabilistic nature of the activity through the definition of danger and uncertainty about achieving the set goal and causes ambiguity in the interpretations of the concept of "risk" available in modern scientific literature. Such ambiguity contributes to the complexity of understanding the media texts of banking topics.

When considering the concept of "risk", a number of key frames can be identified as the main components of risk: "an exceptionally unfavorable phenomenon" / "a phenomenon that can bring benefits"; "a situation of uncertainty in general" / "a situation of uncertainty in anticipation of only negative consequences"; "risk as a measurable event (probability or damage)" / "a phenomenon whose measurability is not its necessary attribute"; "event or action (activity) of the subject"; "event or group of events"; "objective or subjective event".

When considering the concept of "bank risk", it is necessary to adapt the idea of "risk" in the specific conditions of its occurrence in banking. There are six main approaches to understanding the meaning of the phrase "bank risk", namely:

– the probability of deviation from the expected result;

– threat of losses;

– the probability of receiving both losses and profits;

– uncertainty anticipation of the result;

– situational characteristics of banking activity, reflecting the uncertain nature of its outcome;

– the bank's activities related to overcoming uncertainty.

The analysis of the definitions of the concept of "bank risk" available in the literature sources makes it possible to identify insignificant differences, which consist mainly in the chosen approach to understanding the essence of risk as a whole, taking into account the set of interpretations presented above. At the same time, in various interpretations of the concept of "bank risk", as a rule, attention is focused on its financial nature, which, in particular, manifests itself in the form of possible outcomes of a risk situation. In general, bank risk is defined as the possibility of losses incurred by the bank in the event of unfavorable circumstances for the bank. The semantic frames of representations of bank risks include various components, including:

– operational environment risks (regulatory risks, competition risks, economic risks, country risks, etc.);

– management risks (the risk of an inefficient organization or the inability of management to make optimal decisions, the risk of abuse, etc.);

– risks of providing financial services (operational, technological, strategic risk, risk of using new financial instruments, etc.);

– financial risks (including interest rate risk, credit risk, currency risk, liquidity risk, risk of attracting borrowed capital, etc.).

Credit risk a priori accompanies the whole set of credit relations that arise during the implementation of a certain credit transaction by the bank and the provision of a loan to a potential borrower. As a result, we come to the two most complete definitions of "credit risks". The first is a quantitative interpretation of the probability of occurrence of undesirable events when the bank conducts financial transactions, during which the counterparty of the bank is unable to fulfill the obligations assumed under the loan agreement. The second is the lack of confidence of the creditor that the debtor will be able to fulfill its obligations under the terms and conditions of the loan agreement, and will also have intentions to fulfill its obligations. Both require decoding and explanation in media texts provided to the mass audience to which the bank's loan offers are directed. Thus, these definitions generically indicate all possible causes of this kind of risk, since violations of any terms of the loan agreement regarding the procedure for determining the amount of debt and making payments, in particular, the frequency of interest accrual and the frequency of repayment of the main body of the loan and interest on it, are accompanied by financial losses for the bank, violation of the planned movement of financial flows.

Topics and problems of media texts in the field of lending

For modern banks, lending is one of the main and most important types of services that generate the bulk of income. At the same time, the media information policy should be aimed at reducing the volume of credit debts and at preventive preventive work with the population to explain the possibilities and meanings of lending. Therefore, it is fundamentally important for each bank to form its own communicative strategy of credit policy and its media information support, which would ensure the implementation of a set of measures, including information, for the interaction of banks and the population. If credit policy means a system of various monetary and credit measures implemented by the bank in order to achieve certain financial results, then the sphere of media information support includes a detailed, accessible and intelligible explanation of the specifics of bank lending to the population as a whole, as well as the same accessible interpretation of the meanings and meanings of the concept of "credit risks".

The essence of the credit policy of commercial banks is presented in the form of a document defining a set of goals, objectives, key principles and practical actions of a credit institution in the field of operations caused by the acceptance of credit risk. In a broad sense, it is the strategy and tactics of the bank in the field of credit operations ^[15]. But such a strategy cannot be effective without a media information policy, the essence of which is to implement the creation and dissemination among the population of appropriate media texts interpreting in a form accessible to the public, the essence, meanings and meanings of terminological verbal designations that are key to adequate understanding and interaction.

In strategic terms, the credit policy is designed to determine the priorities, principles and goals of a banking institution in the credit market, in tactical terms, it is a set of financial and other tools used to achieve the bank's goals during credit transactions, including the procedure for their execution, approaches to the organization of the lending process. The media information policy, accordingly, is designed to explain to the public all actions and measures to implement the bank's credit policy in order to reduce credit risks and safely expand the volume of lending. Competent use of appropriate media texts, saturation of them with certain verbal means, allows them to be used as effective tools of communication strategies aimed at reducing potential risks.

As a recommendation for the development of meaningful content of media texts, it is possible to propose a detailed description of credit policy measures, which involves the use of an integrated approach covering:

- detailed regulation of the lending process;

- development and application of optimal credit administration schemes;

- support and monitoring of loans during the entire loan term,

- earlier identification and timely rehabilitation of problem loans;

- development of criteria for problem loans and algorithms for responding to its signs;

- identification of loans by the level of risk, timely and complete formation of a reserve for possible loan losses and its systematic adjustment;

- systematic assessment of the quality and trends of the loan portfolio ^{[16, p. 115]}.

First of all, it is necessary to determine the main problems of media texts on lending, which is consistent with the totality of the goals and objectives of the bank's credit policy:

- maintaining the optimal ratio of risk and profitability of the bank loan portfolio;

- determination of guidelines in the field of positioning in the credit market according to the banking development strategy;

- formation of an effective organizational structure for operational and active credit risk management;

- formulation of basic principles as the basis of credit risk management in the bank;

- development of clear standards defining the authority in the field of credit risk management;

- organization of the implementation of legislation, as well as the requirements of its own internal administrative documents.

It is important to clarify the differences between the three types of the bank's credit policy: aggressive, conservative and moderate ^{[17, pp. 113-114]}. As part of its aggressive credit policy, the bank aims to maximize the profitability of each category of loans grouped by the degree of urgency and taking into account the level of risk of a likely reduction in income from the bank's total loan portfolio. The terms "maximization" and "profitability" require interpretation here. With a conservative credit policy, the bank's main goal is to achieve a moderate but stable income with the highest reliability of credit investments, and the formation of an optimal loan portfolio is carried out based on the bank's desire to maintain minimum profitability and minimize risk as much as possible. Finally, the main objective of a moderate credit policy is to provide the bank with the most stable average income in combination with an average acceptable level of risk, at which a banking institution can perform lending not only to reliable, but also to a certain number of high-risk borrowers.

Ensuring an effective credit process requires its adequate coverage in the accompanying media texts. This is especially true for the Russian banking system at the present time, during the period of sanctions, when credit policy is becoming more stringent and risky. In order to neutralize this situation, banks need to take measures to increase the volume of media texts explaining the specifics of financial resources that could be used for lending.

In particular, it is necessary to talk in detail about credit risk management activities at all stages of the credit process: starting with the consideration of the loan application, structuring and examination of the planned credit transaction, making an opinion on the loan application, concluding a transaction (opening a credit limit) and ending with credit administration (transaction execution, credit file management, etc.), monitoring the use of the loan, monitoring the financial situation of the client, servicing the loan by the borrower, the fulfillment of the client's obligations until the final completion of the settlement of the transaction.

Goals and objectives of media information policy in the field of bank lending

In an unstable external environment, in order to establish and further maintain stable relations with customers, the bank needs to ensure a high level of constant media communication through the reproduction of media texts between the bank and customers during the formation of a loan portfolio in order to minimize possible losses by changing the terms of lending. By providing a diverse set of credit products, a commercial bank thereby increases its attractiveness to a wide range of customers. Proper coverage of these products, their advantages, content and advantages is the most important task of the banking media information policy, the solution of which depends on the competent choice of linguistic and stylistic means for the formation of the content of the media texts themselves.

An active media information policy makes it possible to alleviate the consequences of negative or crisis changes in various sectors of the economy and territories on the quality level of the loan portfolio, which in turn will facilitate the diversification of the loan portfolio structure. Adequate media information support can become an effective tool that largely contributes to ensuring optimal concentration of the loan portfolio aimed at reducing credit risk. As part of the solution of its strategic objectives, the bank must continuously improve the set of requirements for the description of the target structure of its loan portfolio in the accompanying media texts, thereby increasing its competitiveness in the credit services market.

For a bank with a wide network of branches, it is important to provide full-fledged media coverage of the processes of optimizing the structure of the loan portfolio, taking into account the regional characteristics of the territories where the bank branches are located. To reduce the excessive concentration of credit risks accompanying transactions with borrowers from different regions, the bank should provide a number of texts as part of a set of media information policy measures to highlight the regional diversification of its loan portfolio, while taking into account the cultural and linguistic specifics of the regional audience, which will facilitate the interpretation of the promoted meanings and information of the bank. In addition, attention should be paid to optimizing the concentration of credit risks in the context of individual economic sectors. Working on concentration by industry, the bank should give preference to those sectors of the economy that are least exposed to market risks, characterized by stable development rates and adequate nature of aggregated debt. In the accompanying media texts, a thorough explanation of such actions of the bank and their significance for effective credit relationships is necessary. The Bank, as part of its media information policy accompanying its credit policy, should explain in detail the sectoral structure of the loan portfolio, taking into account the target levels of investment in material production and non-production.

The most important principle of credit risk regulation is the diversification of the bank loan portfolio by types of credit transactions ^{[18, p. 265]}. This topic should also be reflected in the explanatory accompanying media texts. This principle of the bank's credit activity, together with other components, is expressed in determining the optimal structure of the bank's loan portfolio in terms of loan sizes, asset classes, and risk levels. In order to optimize the total credit risk for the loan portfolio as a whole, the bank should manage the structure of this portfolio by such asset classes as sovereign borrowers (central banks of states and states themselves), banking and other financial organizations, corporate borrowers, retail borrowers. Asset description is another important topic of media information support.

The bank's achievement of an optimal balance of the loan portfolio in terms of risks and financial stability is possible on the basis of effective management of the portfolio structure and taking into account the classification adopted by the bank within the framework of the client ratings system. With a comprehensive and full-fledged explanatory media policy, the audience receives not only the necessary package of knowledge, but also stable positive emotions that facilitate mutual understanding between the lender bank and the borrower. "The movement from institutional mass communication to media communication is a consequence of the increasing importance of the consumer of media products in the communication process as a result of the creation of modern technological intermediaries that have deprived the media of a monopoly on the dissemination of meanings" ^[19].

Conclusion

Thus, the credit policy as the basis for the entire lending process determines its parameters and features. Maintaining an acceptable level of credit risk while simultaneously achieving the planned amount of income from loans in an unstable external environment requires banks to apply not only a scientifically sound credit policy, based on data from the analysis of the current market situation and timely response to changes in factors that can affect the credit services market. Thematically framed text media information support focused on the promotion of lending services, reduction of credit risks and credit and information education of the audience becomes extremely important.