Microfinance industry loans grew 25% in Q3, MFIN data shows

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India’s microfinance industry clocked a 25.2 percent year-on-year growth in the loan book at the end of the December quarter, data compiled by the microfinance institutions network (MFIN ) shows.

The gross loan portfolio grew to Rs 3.2 lakh crore at the end of December from Rs 2.56 lakh crore in the year-ago period, MFIN said in a statement on March 16.

MFIs are companies that give small loans to low-income borrowers and typically source money from banks to do business. Microlenders faced funding challenges and witnessed a fall in collections during the pandemic period. Collections have picked up since.

Within the industry, NBFC-MFIs constituted around 39 percent of the total loan portfolio or Rs 1,23,386 crore, data shows.

This is followed by banks that have a micro-credit loan outstanding of Rs 1,14,546 crore or 35.7 percent of total micro-credit. SFBs have Rs 52,192 crore with a total share of 16.3 percent.

NBFCs account for another 8.5 percent, while other MFIs account for one percent, MFIN said.

The microfinance active loan accounts increased by 18.6 percent in the past 12 months to 12.6 crore as on December 31, 2022.

In terms of regional distribution of GLP, East & Northeast and South account for 63 percent of the portfolio, MFIN said.

Bihar is the largest state in terms of portfolio outstanding followed by Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.