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Chains of Debt: Accessing ‘Ready Cash’ through ‘Material Loans’

By ucsaar0, on 13 January 2016

This is the first in a series of blog posts about debt and loans.

Pawnshops, banks, and non-bank financial service centres (NBFS) are prevalent all over Mongolia. You can hardly turn a corner in Ulaanbaatar without seeing signs advertising low-interest loans. Paradoxically, however, the idea that people are easily able to access cash obscures the fact that everyone, it seems, is in debt. Indeed, most people’s pockets are predominantly filled with the anxious pressure of how to make their next repayment and defaulting on loans is giving rise to a growing market for repossessed goods.[1]

While private debt is a shadow that looms over individuals, public debt is equally ubiquitous. In many ways, the debt of individuals and that of the nation mirrors each other. From 2008-2012, people took out large loans banking on future growth (cf. Batsuuri 2015: 12). This growth has not transpired, leaving people negotiating with their debtors to restructure agreements, or taking out smaller loans in order to survive.

The economist Batsuuri Haltar has commented: ‘The combination of high public debt and rapid private-debt growth means that an imminent economic crisis in Mongolia is now fast approaching’ (Batsuuri 2015: 10). People speculate that over 80% of retirees are in debt, their pensions being a major source of collateral against which to take out loans for family members. Borrowing from those who have taken out loans, especially those with salaries, is prolific across all sectors, leading to multiple chains of indebtedness.

And while Mongolian tradition points to the value of being debt-free: see, for example, the proverb, ‘being rich is being debt-free, being happy is being free of illness’ (Өргүй бол баян, өвчингүй бол жаргал) (Batsuuri 2015:5), debt is now so common that it has itself been re-conceptualised, something illustrated in the new proverb: ‘Money owed to lenders is not debt, it’s just a loan. Debt is when we fail to pay the loan’ (Өр, зээл гэдэг хоёр өөр ойлголт. xүнээс мөнгө зээлээр аваад төлөх болоогүй үед энэ бол өр биш, зээл юм. Xарин өр гэдэг бол чи авсан зээлээ төлж чадахгүй болсон үед л бий болдог эд) (Batsuuri 2015:5).

Ankara Street

Ankara Street is home to at least seven different lombards.[3] The people who work here are mainly women. They are reserved and quiet, brushing off questions by pointing to signs pasted on walls. Their shops are often nestled in the same room as hairdressers, beauty salons, restaurants and manicurists. The relationship between hairdressers and pawnshops was explained to me as being especially fruitful – as people visit the hairdressers every month or so, they are reminded to make a payment on their loan. The pawnbroker sits behind a booth that cuts it off from the rest of the room. Several cameras point at the client as they peer in to communicate, to fill out the contract, or to hand over their treasured items in order to receive cash. Lombard loans are easier to obtain than bank and NBFI loans, involving less paperwork and collateral, but their interest rates are the highest of all.

Image 1. Salon, Pharmacy, Pawnshop Resized

Image 1.  Salon, Pharmacy, Pawnshop.

 

While lombards offer cash without many questions or forms, they hold on to your collateral, off-set against the money given, and ask for a long list of telephone numbers of you and your family members.  Pawnshop loans are not simply granted to individuals on a whim. They are a way of holding in place a relationship to a whole group of people who are all accountable for the repayment. The telephone list you hand over implicates people in a chain of debt, something mirrored by the lombard owners themselves who take out different kinds of loans to establish their businesses and get the initial cash. Lombards, as one informant summarised, are ‘a way to get ready cash quickly’, but they leave a chain of people in their wake who become entangled in the circulation of cash for goods.

The shops along Ankara Street grant loans against mobile telephones, laptops, money and jewellery. Interest rates and repayment policies differ slightly between the shops (between 7% to 9%, based on autumn 2015), as does the amount of money they lend. Some provide different services, such as selling mobile phone units and in others, if people take out back-to-back contracts, the interest rates decrease. Some of these lombards specialise in high-interest, quick-turnaround loans which have to be paid back in two weeks. Others, like Khiimor’ lombard offer contracts for up to 1 to 2 years.

Image 2. Khiimor' Lombard resized

Image 2. Khiimor’ Lombard

 

Khiimor’ Lombard Sign of Services.

Image 3.  Khiimor’ Lombard’s Sign of Services and Interest Rates.

 

Men and women from 20-50 years old come here when they urgently need cash to pay bank loans, school fees, mortgages, rent or other deposits.  Or, as several people put it to me, ‘young people often put in their computer to get money for a night of drinking and partying’. Reasons for accessing cash differ, but several explained that they preferred to be in debt to the lombard rather than to friends and family. Perhaps the lombard does provide a kind of distance and anonymity, without having to divulge to friends or family why one needs the money.

I assumed that work here could involve threatening interactions, but many of the women I spoke to explained that it was not risky in terms of their own safety. All the lombards have CCTV cameras for protection, and often hang a sheet or cloth over the safe in the back that contains the collateral, while larger items are stored off-site. The risk was based on whom they decided to issue loans to. They needed to be vigilant, one woman explained, assessing correctly who is capable of repaying their loan. CCTV cameras point in multiple directions, at both the hands of the broker and the client. Gathering regular repayments correctly is how the broker maintains her job.

Most lombards offer loans for up to one month for 8%’, the woman who worked at Khiimor’ Lombard explained. She evaluates the item to be pawned, issues a contract and receives monthly payments. Lombard workers can also be somewhat selective in who they decide to issue a loan to, as one woman explained:

‘…if I don’t like the people, I won’t take their items and issue a loan. Sometimes drunk people are just sneaking around asking for money for prostitutes and drink and crime and they just bring their bad smells into here’.

Unlike European pawnshops, repossessed items are not on display for sale in the shop. They are taken by the owner and sold directly onto middle-men who sell them elsewhere. ‘If people are not able to repay their loans’ the broker at Kiimori’ Lombard explained, ‘the owner sells the items to the ‘chanjuud’; the owner has a relationship with these people’. This fact, is one of the only signs that points to the idea of the tarnished, or polluted, nature of such goods (cf. Højer 2012).

Pawnshop and mobile phone units for sale.

Image 4.  Pawnshop and mobile phone units for sale.

 

Observing people repaying their loans, I was struck by the stern silence of their exchanges. When I mentioned to friends that I was working on the way people access cash, some lamented that the only people doing well in the current economy must be the lombard owners. It seems to me, however, that small lombards, such as those on Ankara Street, are only just ticking over as the chains of debt that make them possible require complex payments that bind people to each other in precarious ways. It is maybe because of this very precariousness – both economic and social – that the exchanges I witnessed were so formal.

Stopping and Non-stop loans

Moving out of the city centre, we find lombards specialising in the exchange of cars, garages, apartments, parking lots, and even plots of land for cash. As one taxi driver lamented, ‘they take anything’. In the 13th micro district, I focused my research at a large car lombard. Physically, this consists of two sites – a large open parking lot with a temporary portakabin office, and a formal office where people come to make their payments.

In the parking lot Ganbaatar sits behind a desk. At his side is a small safe containing car keys and behind him hangs a large oil painting of a car, onto which people have placed some bank notes. People assess the value of cars with different clients outside while one woman manages the gate.

Image 5. Car Pawning resized

Image 5.  Car pawning.

 

Drive your car while getting a loan!!!

Image 6.  Drive your car while getting a loan!!!

 

This lombard is a conglomerate, part of the ‘Bichil Globus Group’, which includes a bank where they get their money, and where all the interest rates and loans are decided. The group was established 6 years ago and is said to exist in many of the Provincial capitals of Mongolia.[4] It turns on a distinction between ‘stopping loans’ (colloquial. zogsool zeel, official. avtomashinaa il ba dylaan zogsoold bairshuulakh bolomjtoi) and ‘non-stop loans’ (colloquial. zogsoolgui zeel, official. avtomashinaa unaad yavakh bolomjtoi), between leaving your car in the pawn pound and taking out a loan, or taking out a loan and driving your car at the same time. Loans here are issued for six months at a time, as any longer than this is considered too risky.

Image 7. Painting of car with money resized

Image 7.  Painting of car with money.

 

Sitting in the portakabin, a man comes in to request a one-day loan in order to buy a ticket to Korea. He hasn’t received his salary for a few months and needs the cash today. Ganbaatar takes his car keys and ID and places them in the safe. He charges 22 thousand tögrög for the contract, which they both sign, and collects a list of telephone numbers and addresses. The value of the car and the loan amount has been decided upon outside. As the man leaves Ganbaatar explains:

 ‘We look at the car’s market price to evaluate the worth and determine the loan. We issue contracts and call people and bother them for their payments. We also take lots of relative’s details and get an address. Sometimes, the police have to collect the money. Most of the time we just sell the car if they don’t answer their telephones, or can’t repay the loan. Approximately 2 out of 10 people are unable to pay back their loans. In these cases we sell the car to make space for new ones. The most important thing is to make the right evaluation of the car in the first place. This way, we don’t loose money. 100 million tögrög is the most that we issue’.

Some leave their cars in the pound for just one day, others for a week, or even months, depending on how long it takes to repay the loan. Ganbaatar exclaimed further,

It is mostly middle-aged people who come, and they are usually men. They take out loans for different kinds of reasons. If you have a car registered in Ulaanbaatar you can access different services  – so countryside people take out a non-stop loan to get cash to have their car registered here while driving it as a taxi in the city.’

Car pound.

Image 8.  Car pound.

 

At the offices of the Bichil Globus Group a poster greets you proclaiming: ‘We are your Financial Wing’ (tan’i sanhüügiin jigüür) while four men in suits sit at separate desks with files and computers. One man, fiddling with a stapler while speaking on the phone, proclaims softly: ‘I’m ringing you to let you know that today your loan is due. You need to make the next payment. Today you owe us 432 hundred tögrög. If you come in today we can process it.’

Observing this room a strange juxtaposition emerges between the stillness of office and the movement it grants outside. Contacting people all day by phone while watching spread sheets on their computers, the company’s strap line in the parking lot outside reads: ‘Drive your car while getting a loan! (mashinaa unaad zeelee av)’

A youngish man named Bold comes in to pay off 120 thousand tögrög. He goes to the till manned by a woman, makes his payment and is handed an invoice. Again the whole transaction is carried out in silence and with minimal interaction and I am not sure if this is due to a sense of shame that pervades these activities, or simply because it has become so mundane for both client and broker that there is no need for any niceties.

Bold.

Image 9.  Bold.

 

Bold is 22 years old and owns a Toyota IST. He recently graduated from the National University of Mongolia where he trained as a software engineer. He placed his car in the lombard five months ago and took out a 6 month loan for 1 million tögrög. He pays 120 thousand tögrög twice a month (i.e. 240 thousand tögrög each month). He needed the money, he explains for his graduation ceremony, for the clothes, and so on. His father gave him the car four years ago, imagining that he could make some money as a taxi driver while he was studying.

 ‘All students with cars take out loans against them’, he explains, ‘it’s a good way to get money, and my parents agreed to it. Every Mongolian has placed some of their things in a lombard to get cash. I’ve placed all kinds of things; a two week loan for my phone, a one month loan for a gold ring. The value is different according to the item. A car gets you 1 million tögrög.’ Now I work and am able to pay back the loan’.

As it turns out, his older brother, with whom he lives, gives him most of the money to pay back the loan. Again, we see that there are no singular transactions. These kind of exchanges are always part of wider chains and obligations that reach back, implicating many different people in networks of debt.

Image 10. Vietnamese garage resized

Image 10.  Vietnamese garage.

 

In the 16th micro district, up two flights of stairs, nestled among the many Vietnamese garages sits Nomontsetseg in Soronsel Lombard. Her desk is placed behind a high counter above which strip lighting flickers painfully in the ceiling. A few potted plants sit on the internal window sill which looks out onto a brick wall. Nomon has worked here for two years, carrying out all the paperwork for the yard outside.

People call and make an appointment to have their car valued. They come in to sign the contract and then the money is issued, either as cash or as an account transfer. Payments are made monthly and clients are contacted via telephone or SMS messages’, she explains.

In her work, there is a kind of stillness and silence, not present in the hustle and bustle at banks, or at other institutions. This stillness masks the movement that the loans themselves engender, allowing for different projects to be born and put into action.

Behind the simple transaction of a personal item for cash, a complex network of relations is also triggered that ties people together in webs of debt, facilitating new endeavours while prohibiting others. In this domino of exchanges one thing is constant – the loan that is taken out can never be paid back without recourse to yet further loans, allowing for freedom, or an opening, in one sense, while simultaneously initiating future constraints elsewhere.

Image 11 a Immaterial Loan resized

Image 11 b Mobile phone number loan resized

Images 11a & 11b. Immaterial loans & mobile phone number loans.


All photos © Rebecca Empson

 

References

Højer, L. 2012 The spirit of business: pawnshops in Ulaanbaatar, Social Anthropology, 20: 34–49.

Batsuuri, Haltar 2015 Original Sin: Is Mongolia Facing an External Debt Crisis? The Northeast Asian Economic Review, Vol. 3, No. 2, October 2015 pp3-15

Rawski, E 1998 The Last Emperors. A Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions, University of California Press: Berkeley, Los Angeles, London

Sneath, David 2012 The ‘age of the market’ and the regime of debt: the role of credit in the transformation of pastoral Mongolia, Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale (2012) 20, 4 458–473.

 

[1] The rate of nonperforming loans has risen to 7.3% in 2015. See National Statistics Office of Mongolia. http://www.nso.mn/index.php

[2] Lombard is a term that comes from a type of banking that originated in the middle-ages in the northern Italian region of Lombardy, and probably came to Mongolia during the Soviet period when lombards were also common. The prevalence of pawnshops was also common during the Qing period. By the late 18th Cent, Rawski notes that pawnshops and other revenue-baring assets had replaced grants of livestock and estates as dowry for Manchu princesses who married Outer Mongolian Princes (1998: 148-149). They were also common during the 1990s, where ‘Pawning valuables became a common strategy for people thrust suddenly into the margins of poverty. The use of the lombard tended to become cyclical; people would surrender items as security for a loan, later when they found the money they would pay off the debt and interest and reclaim their property, only to find that they were forced to pawn valuables again when their money ran out’ (Sneath 2012:460).

[3] There is a distinction between ‘material loans’ (bar’tsaat zeel) and ‘immaterial loans’ (bar’tsaagui zeel), which may include mobile phone numbers (see Images 11a & 11b).

[4] The Bichil Globus Group has a total of 22 branches – 11 in UB and 11 in the Provincial Capitals (cf. their website).

31 Responses to “Chains of Debt: Accessing ‘Ready Cash’ through ‘Material Loans’”

  • 1
    Marissa Smith wrote on 13 January 2016:

    In 2012 the government made car insurance mandatory. People I knew were very enthusiastic about car insurance, telling me how it was a kind of state guarantee of money changing hands as it should in case of accident (here also, there was concern about obligation/dependence on family and other intimates as well). I did look up the numbers a few months back and saw that the number of car insurance policies had sharply declined after 2012… Any information about other kinds of finance, and also on how government and other authority is coming into play? Also interested to hear about events related to the recent legal changes and challenges on apartment mortgages…

  • 2
    rebecca empson wrote on 14 January 2016:

    Hi Marissa. Thanks for your comments. Regarding car insurance, it is my understanding that it is still mandatory and is a pre-requisite for car tax. You also need to have insurance (car and personal) to buy / sell cars. In fact, the insurance offices are often located in the same building as the car dealerships. While some aspects of car insurance are valued – the number of small car incidents in UB is very high and car insurance provides (as you say) a ‘clean’ way of negotiating the blame / cost, other aspects are seen as draining / a burden, and many people seem to be able to get out of paying it for some periods of time, until they have to sell / register / tax their car again. Of course, if you are in the countryside you are unlikely to be stopped and checked, so things are different. I am not sure what has driven the decline you mention, but would be really interested to hear any insight into this.

    Regarding other finance and the influence of government authority, a lot of people are talking about the allocation of government-funded SMEs, something Narantuya Chuluunbat (NUM) is looking at. Personal loans from banks are less easy to access than a few years ago, hence the rise in NBFS and lombards. Liz Fox, a UCL PhD student, is currently working on the allocation of social security at a local Khoroo office in the UB ger districts. We also have a blog post coming up later this month about recent changes to mortgages by Bumochir Dulam.

  • 3
    Marissa Smith wrote on 16 January 2016:

    Thank you! Looking forward to those posts. In the meantime, I will look for those figures about the decline in car insurance purchases… they should be cited in something (unpublished) I wrote about a year ago, which might also have some points I didn’t mention above to add.

  • 4
    Marissa Smith wrote on 22 January 2016:

    Re: declines in car insurance coverage… one source.

    http://www.undp.org/content/dam/mongolia/docs/InclusiveInsurance2014041617/Presentations/pdf/Day2pdf/3.2014.04.17%20The%20market%20potential%20in%20Mongolian%20insurance%20industry%20-%20eng.pdf

    See especially slide 16 (“Motor Insurance Gap”). Slide 10 also shows a drop in “reinsurance retention,” but apparently isn’t broken down into types of insurance (motor vehicle, livestock, etc.)

    (The site for the UNDP sponsored conference this was presented at in spring 2014 is here: http://www.mn.undp.org/content/mongolia/en/home/presscenter/articles/2014/04/09/-inclusive-insurance-2014-international-forum-ulaanbaatar-mongolia-16-17-april-2014-concept-note.html)

  • 5
    Manduul wrote on 28 January 2016:

    Marissa, if you’re interested, I can share a ppt on car insurance with you.

  • 6
    Marissa Smith wrote on 1 February 2016:

    Yes, I would really be interested in the car insurance powerpoint, could you send to me at marissajsmith@alumni.princeton.edu? (For some reason, I can’t seen any info about who posted that comment, btw!)

  • 7
    Living on Loans | UCL Emerging Subjects Blog wrote on 22 January 2016:

    […] Chains of Debt: Accessing ‘Ready Cash’ through ‘Material Loans’ […]

  • 8
    Living on Loans | UCL Emerging Subjects Blog wrote on 22 January 2016:

    […] Mongolian culture contains sayings on its negative moral implications. The saying mentioned in Rebecca Empson’s blog entry, ‘Өргүй бол баян, өвчингүй бол жаргал’ (‘To be without debt is […]

  • 9
    Jeremy wrote on 24 January 2016:

    Fascinating stuff. I spent 33 years working in a London University, and and now 4 years running a small business in Ulaanbaatar. I’ve seen some of this loan activity, but hadn’t realised it was so widespread. I will look for future articles with interest (pun not intended).

  • 10
    Byambajav wrote on 25 January 2016:

    Excellent post!

    Who owns livestock in Mongolia? Herders or banks? I have heard this question many times recently. Herders are heavily indebted as a result of “малчны зээл” or “herder loans” that have proliferated in the past ten years. Maybe you will examine it later?

  • 11
    Rebecca Empson wrote on 25 January 2016:

    Thanks for your comments and for the links and suggestions – these posts are really meant as openings for further discussion.

    Certainly, allowing the collateralization of animal herds for loans was an interesting innovation by Khan Bank when they pioneered ‘herder loans’ across Mongolia in order to pump cash into the general economy in the hope of diversifying it (cf. my chapter Portioning Loans 2014). As with many micro-finance projects, these initiatives often leave people in debt (cf. Bateman and Chang 2009, Hickel 2015), sometimes having their collateral seized, sometimes having to bribe officials to take out further loans, or seek ways of gaining cash from shop-keepers and others. In 2012 people in the countryside told me ‘everyone has a loan, without a loan how can you live?’ Now it seems everyone still has a loan(s), but they wish there were ways to live without them, or ways to untangle themselves from them. Debt extends time – reminding people of past agreements and structuring present relationships into the future. There is something terrifying about everything being on loan. It chimes with the idea of ‘temporary possession’ and, of course, sits uncomfortably with the idea that certain possessions are meant to be inalienable (cf. Stallybrass 1998), but it appears that it is also the norm for most people, even when it concerns such personal and living things such as a pastoral herder’s animals. Ownership issues, it seems, are always contested.

  • 12
    Laurenbonilla wrote on 25 January 2016:

    When I was in southwestern Hovd in November and December I asked herders about the herder loans (малчны зээл). The common refrain was that “everyone has one”. The amount of money that can be acquired for this kind of loan is not small, but people viewed it as not a lot of money – up to 5 million MNT (USD $2,500), but the standard amount acquired is said to be around 1-3 million. Following the insights of this blog post, indebtedness is compounded by the multiple layers of loans that herders accumulate. For instance, elderly herders, who make up the majority of the herding population in some areas, take out loans on their pensions. When I asked herders how they use their loan money, they all said it is mainly to support not themselves but children and relatives living in urban areas (soum or aimag center, or Ulaanbaatar). It is quite remarkable how the rural population is supporting the economy of urban areas! I think we might see a change in this dynamic this winter and spring given that herders are really struggling now to access cash given that market prices for animal products (meat and hides) have dropped to dramatic lows. My friends and I purchased a whole butchered sheep in Hovd city in December for only 20,000 MNT or $10. This is how much 4-5 kilos of sheep meat cost in 2012. Without the ability to make money from livestock sales, herders may need to acquire money and other goods in different ways, which may result in more chains of debt. We’ll see after Tsagaan Sar holiday how this will unfold, when so many will likely be short on cash and high on debt.

  • 13
    Manduul wrote on 28 January 2016:

    The government will soon submit a change in the law that would bring lombards under FRC supervision. 8% monthly rate is ridiculously high.

  • 14
    Rebecca Empson wrote on 28 January 2016:

    Thank you Manduul, that is really interesting to hear. I look forward to seeing how that will change the lombards and the way people use them.

  • 15
    Marissa Smith wrote on 1 February 2016:

    Chains of debt = chains of ezed…

  • 16
    Rebecca Empson wrote on 5 February 2016:

    Hi Marissa thanks for your formulation which can be thought of in multiple ways. The ‘multiple ownership’ (many ezen) aspect of goods retained & resold by lombards is something that Hoyer writes about in relation to the somewhat tarnished and polluted aspect of personal good which are passed on to many owners. As I highlight above, these items are also ‘collectively owned’ in another way. Multiple people become responsible for the release of these items from the pawnshop itself, through the long telephone lists which are handed over. I was surprised to find little ceremony regarding purification of goods at these places and maybe that points to the increasing normalcy of temporary possession / multiple possession of many things which in the past were considered attached to individuals. Perhaps, then, ‘chain’ is the wrong word to think of what binds people togther through these transactions.

  • 17
    Marissa Smith wrote on 12 February 2016:

    Thanks for the reply — it has been a busy few days so I neglected to check back here earlier!

    That is very interesting about the difference with what Hojer found… will have to think about that more. If I remember right, he was discussing one issue I was thinking of — peoples’ nervousness about not knowing who the ezed were. I think a key difference between then and now might be the role of the state and conglomerate corporations and financial institutions as ezed vs. other types of ezed. There also seems to be something special about cars and mobile phones (would be interesting to know if you saw folks pawning gold rings or other jewelry, or if that was just a hypothetical example…)

  • 18
    Internalizing External Debt | UCL Emerging Subjects Blog wrote on 24 February 2016:

    […] for someone like Ganzorig whose everyday life is already shaped by chains of debt, national debt might feel like yet another link that weighs the chain down.  Yet it is a link that […]

  • 19
    Blog Series on Loans and Debt | UCL Emerging Subjects Blog wrote on 6 April 2016:

    […] 1. Chains of Debt: Accessing ‘Ready Cash’ through ‘Material Loans’ […]

  • 20
    Зээлээр амьдрахуй | Шинжээч – Үндэстний Сэргэн Мандлын Сүлжээ wrote on 3 May 2016:

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  • 22
    “Shakhaanii Business”: Shared Debt, Privatization of Profit, and (Re-)Emergent Corruption Discourses in Mongolia | UCL Emerging Subjects Blog wrote on 2 March 2017:

    […] I re-read Rebecca Empson and Lars Højer’s separate work about Mongolian pawnshops (lombard), it strikes me how it is not […]

  • 23
    James Anderson wrote on 2 March 2017:

    Just came across it and I greatly enjoyed this post. I did a study on UB’s informal sector 20 years ago and found (anecdotally) that while most informals financed their start up capital from family and friends, some used lombards. I always thought it would be fun and interesting to look into lombards in more depth. This post did the trick. One question: when interest rates are quoted, I presume they are monthly, right? Those are very high rates when converted to annual rates.

  • 24
    Rebecca Empson wrote on 2 March 2017:

    How nice to receive your comment, especially after all the posts from people trying to sell loans! I would be fascinated to read your study from 20 years ago. Please do send it. I didn’t know that lombards were popular then, although some have explained that they did exist even during the Soviet period. Regarding the interest rates – they vary. When quoted as being monthly, they are (one month = 8%), but in Image 3, for instance, you can see how they increase daily, rising to 8% at 15 days. These were all from October 2015, so will have changed now. Lombard’s have the highest interest rates of all, but they are the easiest way to access cash (from a semi-formal institution) if you have the collateral to hand. In my study on small to medium businesses I have found that they sustain themselves financially by being part of informal business ‘groups’ who share tender agreements, collateral, and bank accounts for financial reports, something I’m exploring in a paper for an special journal issue on ‘Mongolian-made Capitalism’.

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