MUMBAI: The credit market has added 22% more women borrowers annually between 2019 and 2024, adding 4 crore new women borrowers who lapped up Rs 4.7 trillion of debt against their gold jewellery.
According to a Cibil-Niti Ayog report on Monday, gold loans have emerged as the preferred option for women borrowers worth Rs 4.7 trillion, which in other words are 38% of the total loans women have taken in 2024. This is a five-fold increase in gold loan volumes since 2019.
Younger women are driving the trend in credit monitoring too, with 56% on-year increase in their numbers, accounting for 22% of the self-monitoring women population in 2024, says the report.
This means that more women borrowers are taking charge of accessing their credit, preferring to avail loans against gold, and actively monitoring their credit scores, said the report jointly prepared by Transunion Cibil, Niti Aayog's women entrepreneurship platform and Microsave Consulting.
The report noted a significant 22% compound annual growth rate in women accessing credit, up from 20 lakh in 2019 to 2.7 crore in 2024, with 60% of them hailing from semi-urban and rural areas.
"This underscores a deepening financial footprint of women borrowers beyond metro cities," the report said.
Personal finance credit--comprising personal loans, loans for consumer durables, home and vehicle loans - is a dominant segment for women borrowers, who availed 4.3 crore loans worth Rs 4.8 trillion in 2024. This accounts for 42 percent of all loans taken by women during that year.
The report also notes an increase in women monitoring their credit scores. As of December 2024, 2.7 crore women borrowers were tracking their credit health, a 42 percent surge from 1.9 crore in December 2023. Women's representation in the self-monitoring credit base increased to 19.4% in 2024, up 17.9% from the previous year, the report said.
Forty-four percent of women borrowers who tracked their credit history saw their credit scores improve within six months. Notably, among women with overdue payments of 90+ days at the time of credit check, 17.5% transitioned to a lower delinquency category, while 11.4% became standard borrowers within six months.