Aditya Birla Capital has entered the gold loan business, making it the third non-banking finance company to foray into the segment in the past two months. In July, Godrej Capital and Tata Capital ventured into the territory.
The company has plans to roll out 200-300 dedicated gold loan branches by March 2027. “Over the next three years, the ABCL-NBFC business aims to establish a network of around 1,000 gold loan branches, building a strong pan-India franchise and further strengthening its presence across the country,” the company said in a press release on Thursday.
Rakesh Singh, Executive Director and CEO – NBFC at Aditya Birla Capital, said the entry into the segment is a natural extension of the company’s secured lending strategy. The offering will cater to various customers across urban and semi-urban markets, and will also serve the existing customers.
The company will have to compete with Muthoot Finance and Manappuram Finance, who currently dominate the gold loan space.
In FY26, the company’s AUM grew 27% on year to Rs 1.60 lakh crore, with retail and the SME (small and medium enterprise) comprising around 68% of the assets. In Q1FY27, the AUM was up 28% on year.
According to data by the Reserve Bank of India, NBFC credit to loans against gold jewellery grew 69.3% on year to Rs 3.41 lakh crore as of June.
“We expect the gold loan momentum to be healthy, given the further acceleration in gold price in the last 15-20 days. Glitches related to implementation of the new LTV framework are also expected to resolve. However, pricing strategy and rising number of lenders would remain a key monitorable,” Shreepal Doshi, research analyst at Equirus Securities, said. So far in 2026, prices of gold have surged 18%.
Ratings agency ICRA in their report in July had said that the entry of new players and large NBFCs in the gold loan space supports the strong growth outlook for this segment, particularly amid the stress in unsecured lending in the recent past.