Gross Loan Portfolio of Microfinance Institutions Rises 31% to Rs 74,371 Crore in FY20: MFIN

Microfinance institutions' (MFI) gross loan portfolio registered a growth of 31 per cent to Rs 74,371 crore at the end of March 2020, according to MFIN. The portfolio had stood at Rs 56,683 crore in 2018-19.

The Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) is an RBI-recognised self-regulatory organisation and industry association of the microfinance sector. Its members include 56 NBFC-MFIs and 35 associates, including banks, small finance banks (SFBs) and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).

Average loan amount disbursed per account during 2019-20 was Rs 27,754, which is an increase of around 6 per cent in comparison to loans disbursed during 2018-19, the MFIN's Micrometer report for the January-March 2020 period said.

At the end of March this year, the microfinance sector served 5.89 crore unique borrowers through 10.54 crore loan accounts, it added.

Banks hold the largest share of portfolio in micro-credit with the total loan outstanding of Rs 92,281 crore, which is 39.8 per cent of the total micro-credit universe.

NBFC-MFIs are the second-largest provider of micro-credit with a loan amount outstanding of Rs 73,792 crore, accounting for 31.8 per cent of the total sector portfolio.

The report said that SFBs have a total loan amount outstanding of Rs 40,556 crore with total share of 17.5 per cent.

NBFCs account for another 9.8 per cent and other MFIs account for 1.1 per cent of the universe, the report said.

During 2019-20, MFIN member NBFC-MFIs disbursed 2.78 crore loans worth Rs 77,072 crore, it added.

Top-10 MFIs in terms of loan amount disbursed accounted for 70 per cent of industry disbursements in 2019-20.

The report said that during 2019-20, MFIN member NBFC-MFIs received a total of Rs 42,150 crore in debt funding (from banks and other financial institutions). This represents a growth of 33 per cent as compared to 2018-19, when they received Rs 31,688 crore.

Based on the March 2020 quarter data available for 54 NBFC-MFI members, loan amount disbursed through cashless mode is 92 per cent.

Majority of member MFIs (83 per cent) have reported that more than 90 per cent of their disbursement happen in cashless mode, the report said.