MFIs’ loan book rises 26% in Q1

The loan portfolio of microfinance institutions (MFIs) increased by 26 per cent to Rs 35,045 crore in the first quarter ended June 2017, an industry body said. The gross loan portfolio or GLP of Non-Banking Finance Company-Microfinance Institutions (NBFC-MFIs) was Rs 27,921 crore at the end of April-June 2016-17. As of June 30, 2017, NBFC-MFIs provided micro-credit to around 2.08 crore clients, an increase of 19 per cent over first quarter of 2016-17, said the Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), an industry association and Self-Regulatory Organisation (SRO) for the microfinance industry in India.

"The aggregate gross loan portfolio (GLP) of MFIs stood at Rs 35,045 crore. This represents a y-o-y growth of 26 per cent over Q1 of 2016-17 and 8 per cent over the last quarter," the said the latest report of MFIN. MFIN CEO Ratna Vishwanathan said the microfinance business has been stable over the past quarter. "The latest data also shows that there was a minor increase in the total number of loans disbursed by NBFC-MFIs over the last year which stands at 55.82 lakh but the increase in loan amount disbursed registered 21 per cent growth YoY," she said.

Vishwanathan further said that portfolio at risk numbers have also seen improvement which shows that NBFC-MFI business is slowly returning to normalcy. "However, we will have to wait for another few quarters as we expect it to come back to pre-demonetisation level...We are optimistic about the industry growth in the coming months," she said. NBFC-MFIs witnessed growth of 19 per cent in number of clients which stands at 2.08 crore.