India now has 89 crore consumers who are eligible for credit, up from 79 crore in 2017, according to a TransUnion CIBIL study covering March 2017 to March 2026. About 74% of Indian adults have taken a loan at least once in the past 10 years.
That second figure has more than doubled. In March 2017 it stood at 35%.
The credit information company’s report, titled “Unlocking Access: Journey of Credit Expansion in India,” says the growth is coming from women, younger borrowers and non-metro regions. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar are growing faster than the traditional strongholds in western and southern India.
The share of new-to-credit consumers among retail originations fell from 32% in the March 2017 quarter to 13% in the March 2026 quarter. The study still sees room to bring more of them, and new-to-credit commercial entities, into the formal system. Credit monitoring, meanwhile, jumped from 1% in March 2018 to 35% in March 2026.
Bhavesh Jain, TransUnion CIBIL’s managing director and CEO, said the decade brought “momentous changes” such as demonetisation, the goods and services tax and the Unified Payments Interface. He said regulators, banks, non-banking finance companies, fintechs, credit information companies, new technology and digital public infrastructure had “collectively expanded pathways to credit.” The pandemic, he added, “accelerated adoption of digital tools.”
Women and younger borrowers
Jain was upbeat about women. “Women are clearly becoming more financially aware, engaged, and driving sustainable inclusion,” he said, adding that credit maturity among women borrowers “has been impressive” thanks to digitisation and greater awareness of credit.
Younger borrowers have different tastes. “For younger borrowers, mobile phones rather than two-wheelers and vehicles appear to be products of choice, as this mobile phone-native generation sees them as productivity tools,” Jain said.
The study also found that wider access to formal credit came with a shift in who makes up India’s credit-active population.
