The data from Finaccord, a market research consultancy specialising in financial services, reveals that sales of new cars in Russia have risen sharply since a slump in 2009, outpacing growth in any EU country, with the result that Russia has been the second-largest market for new cars in Europe since 2011, only trailing behind Germany. Since Russian car buyers rely on dealers for finance much more than in most EU countries, Russia is the largest market for new car finance and leasing taken out through dealerships, with an estimated €20.48bn in gross advances and new assets leased for 2012, or 26.4% of the whole European market in 2012.

Turkey has seen even faster growth than Russia: new car sales boomed after 2008, and again a large majority of customers take out finance and leasing at the point of sale (ie through dealers). As a result, the value of gross advances and new assets leased for new cars stood at an estimated €3.68bn for 2012, or 4.8% of the whole European market – compared to 2.3% in 2008.

However, dealers in Russia and Turkey sell far fewer used cars than France, Germany and the UK. When used cars are added to the picture, Germany still has the largest market for automotive finance and leasing at the point of sale – but Russia is ahead of France and the UK.

In stark contrast, sales of both new and used cars continue to fall in the EU economies that have been worst-hit by the financial crisis, notably Greece, Hungary, Ireland and Italy, and to a lesser extent Portugal and Spain. The most serious decline is that of the Italian market since its automotive market is by far the largest of these countries: for new cars, gross advances and assets leased at the point of sale are estimated at €5.94bn for 2012, less than half the figure for 2008 (€12.2bn).

‘The automotive finance and leasing markets in Russia and Turkey have benefited from a combination of three trends. First, their new car markets have surged since 2008 or 2009; secondly, their credit markets are not especially well-developed, and dealers are the predominant source of finance in these countries; thirdly, dealers sell more new cars than used ones, so the average value of a loan is relatively high’, comments David Parry, managing consultant at Finaccord. ‘In contrast, the market in countries like Greece is held back by a shortage of capital as well as by weak demand: lenders are turning down customers who don't have a very good credit record.’

The importance of the Russian market can be seen in the composition of the top 15 finance providers of automotive finance and leasing at the point of sale. Finaccord's research established which finance providers were used by dealers and which finance providers worked with manufacturer brands across 25 countries, and then weighted the results by the value of point-of-sale finance and leasing in each country. While the captive or joint venture finance providers of Europe's leading manufacturer groups held nine of these top 15 places, six were held by independent companies, and only one of these did not have significant activities for automotive finance in Russia. This was Santander Consumer Finance, which held third place on this analysis across Europe thanks to its partnerships with both dealers and manufacturer brands in 12 countries.

‘Santander Consumer Finance aside, all the major independent providers of automotive finance and leasing have significant activity in this sector in Russia. Société Générale owns Rusfinance Bank and Rosbank, UniCredit backs RN Finance on behalf of Renault and Nissan, Sberbank acts in its own name and as the majority shareholder in Cetelem in Russia along with BNP Paribas, and Raiffeisen Bankengruppe's automotive business in Russia is much larger than in its home market of Austria. Sberbank's acquisition of DenizBank in Turkey in 2012 from Belgium's Dexia was the epitome of this shifting balance away from the EU to Russia and Turkey’ concluded Mr Parry.