India retail credit in FY26: Gold loans lead surge

What the latest credit-bureau data shows

India’s retail credit market stayed on a strong growth path through FY26, with multiple credit-bureau reports pointing to rising loan sourcing, a sharper tilt toward secured lending, and improving asset-quality trends. Equifax’s latest update for the January to March 2026 quarter highlighted a broad-based rise in retail loan originations, while other recent releases from CRIF High Mark, Experian and TransUnion CIBIL reinforced the same direction of travel.

Across these reports, the common thread is the growing role of collateral-backed products, particularly gold loans, alongside steady performance in home loans. Unsecured categories such as personal loans also expanded, but lenders appear to be tightening risk filters, with improvements in net 90+ delinquency and fresh slippages reported across lender types.

Equifax: originations up 40% by value in Jan-Mar 2026

According to Equifax, overall retail loan originations in the January to March 2026 quarter rose 40% year-on-year by value and 27% by volume. Equifax also reported that overall retail credit assets under management (AUM) expanded 16% year-on-year as of March 2026, supported largely by secured lending products, especially gold loans and housing finance.

Demand, Equifax said, remained concentrated in mid-ticket segments ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 75 lakh. It also noted a lender shift toward lower-risk and higher-velocity loan categories, alongside an improvement in asset quality during the quarter.

Asset quality improves as delinquencies and slippages ease

Equifax highlighted that asset quality improved across most retail lending products, with net 90+ delinquency levels and fresh slippages declining steadily across banks, NBFCs and fintech-led portfolios.

For gold loans specifically, Equifax reported a sharp fall in delinquency levels across lender categories and ticket sizes during March 2026, with industry-wide net 90+ delinquency easing to 0.19%.

Personal loans also saw improvement in asset quality. Equifax said net 90+ delinquency in personal loans declined across lender categories, and pointed to NBFC personal-loan delinquencies improving from 2.5% in March 2025 to 1.6% in March 2026.

Gold loans: the standout growth segment in Jan-Mar 2026

Gold loans were the standout segment in Equifax’s data for the quarter, with originations surging 103% year-on-year in Jan-Mar 2026. Equifax reported that gold loan disbursements rose to Rs 9.81 lakh crore during the quarter, which is ₹981,000 crore when expressed in a single base unit.

The report also said total gold-loan AUM nearly doubled year-on-year, supported by rising gold prices and growing borrower preference for collateral-backed lending. The underlying trend is consistent with other bureau commentary that the incremental supply of retail credit is increasingly anchored in secured categories.

NBFCs outpace banks in gold-loan disbursements

Equifax reported that NBFCs emerged as the fastest-growing lender category in gold loans, posting 213% year-on-year growth in disbursements. Public sector and private sector banks grew more slowly than NBFCs on this measure.

At the same time, Equifax said public sector banks continued to hold the largest market share in gold loans at 45%. It also noted a shift in borrower preference toward NBFCs, attributing it to faster processing and wider reach.

Personal loans: second-largest contributor to retail growth

Equifax identified personal loans as the second-largest contributor to retail credit growth after gold loans. It said demand remained strong in higher-ticket personal loans, while small-ticket delinquencies improved during the quarter.

Alongside loans, Equifax also flagged an industry focus on premium customers and higher-value card segments, while noting that the market share of high-limit cards gradually moderated.

CRIF High Mark: retail portfolio at ₹17,020,000 crore

CRIF High Mark’s report, How India Lends – Credit Landscape in India, put India’s overall retail lending portfolio at Rs 170.2 lakh crore as of March 2026, which is ₹17,020,000 crore. It reported year-on-year growth of 16.6% and quarter-on-quarter growth of 4.6%.

CRIF High Mark also reported consumption loans at Rs 118.6 lakh crore, or ₹11,860,000 crore, up 15.3% year-on-year. In CRIF’s narrative, the shift toward secured lending was visible in the growing share of gold loans and home loans within the overall portfolio mix.

Home loans stay the biggest, gold loans turn into the fastest-grower

CRIF High Mark reported that home loans remain the single largest retail product at Rs 44.4 lakh crore (₹4,440,000 crore), growing 9.4% year-on-year and 3.4% quarter-on-quarter.

Gold loans, in the same report, grew portfolio outstanding 50.4% year-on-year to Rs 18.6 lakh crore (₹1,860,000 crore) and 15.0% quarter-on-quarter. The report described gold loans as the second-largest retail product after home loans.

CRIF also reported strong momentum in originations, with total retail loan disbursements rising 42.2% year-on-year in value terms during Q4 FY26, led by gold loans, while personal loans and consumer durable credit expanded more than 30% year-on-year.

Experian and TransUnion CIBIL: similar direction, different totals

A separate summary citing Experian said retail credit AUM in India rose 19% year-on-year to Rs 137 lakh crore as of March 2026, or ₹13,700,000 crore. It also stated that new loans rose 31% to Rs 75 lakh crore in FY26, or ₹7,500,000 crore. Within that dataset, gold-loan AUM was reported at Rs 11.9 lakh crore (₹1,190,000 crore), up 47% year-on-year, while home-loan AUM was reported at Rs 43 lakh crore (₹4,300,000 crore), up 12%.

TransUnion CIBIL, as cited in coverage on gold loans, described gold loans as the top product in new originations and the second-largest retail credit book at around Rs 16 lakh crore (₹1,600,000 crore), behind home loans of about Rs 44 lakh crore (₹4,400,000 crore). In a separate TransUnion CIBIL update, gold loans were also described as comprising a large share of new originations.

Key figures from the reports (all values in ₹ crore)

Market impact: what the shift toward secured lending implies

The reported tilt toward gold loans and housing finance matters because it changes the risk and yield mix for lenders. Secured products typically have different collection dynamics and loss profiles compared with unsecured personal loans and small-ticket consumption credit, and the bureau data points to lenders actively favouring categories seen as lower-risk.

At the same time, the reports show competitive pressure and channel shifts. Equifax’s gold-loan lender split, with public sector banks still the largest by share but NBFCs growing fastest, suggests a market where speed of disbursal and distribution reach are playing a bigger role in customer choice.

For investors tracking listed lenders, the relevant monitorables from these reports are the pace of origination growth, whether asset-quality gains in net 90+ delinquency are sustained, and how lender mix changes across secured categories that are expanding faster than the broader retail book.

Why the FY26 retail-credit trend is being closely watched

The headline numbers across reports are strong, but what stands out is the combination of fast growth with improving delinquency metrics. Equifax’s reported drop in gold-loan net 90+ delinquency to 0.19% and its improvement in NBFC personal-loan delinquency from 2.5% to 1.6% are notable data points within this context.

Separately, the presence of multiple reported totals from different bureaus for similar market aggregates underlines that readers should treat each figure as belonging to that specific report’s coverage, definitions and portfolio cuts, rather than assuming a single unified industry number.

Conclusion

Credit-bureau data for FY26 and the March 2026 quarter shows India’s retail credit continuing to expand, with secured lending taking a larger role and gold loans emerging as the fastest-growing segment. The next set of bureau releases and quarterly lender disclosures will be key to tracking whether the improved delinquency trend holds as loan books grow.