look news india
Mumbai: The growth in the microfinance loan portfolio of lenders in the last financial year shows that the demand for loans in the country remains strong. The micro loan portfolio grew 24.50 per cent year-on-year to Rs 4,33,697 crore in FY 2023-24. The number of outstanding micro loans at the end of March 2023 was Rs 3,48,339 crore.
The number of loan accounts increased to 14.90 crore at the end of March 2024 as against 13 crore at the end of March 2023.
Institutions providing microfinance include banks, NBFC-MFIs, small finance banks and finance companies. Along with the increase in loans, the amount of micro loan losses has also increased slightly.
The stress level in terms of defaults in micro loans increased slightly in the March quarter after improving or remaining stable during the past few quarters, a report said.
After NBFC-MFIs, banks are next in providing microfinance. In the last financial year, the number of micro loans disbursed by NBFC-MFIs was Rs 1,70,903 crore which was 39.40 percent of the total outstanding loans.
Banks still had to take Rs 1,44,022 crore under micro credit, which is 33.20 percent of the total outstanding loan.