The gross loan portfolio of microfinance institutions (MFIs) rose 25.2% year-on-year (y-o-y) to `3.2 trillion as on December 31, a report from Microfinance Institutions Network said on Thursday.
Loan disbursals in the microfinance segment rose to nearly `77,900 crore in October-December, from Rs 65,400 crore a year ago.
In terms of absolute numbers, 18.9 million loans were disbursed during October-December, higher than 16.5 million a year ago, which indicates a higher ticket size of new loans.
Active loan accounts in the microfinance segment rose nearly 19% y-o-y to 126 million as on December 31.
Non-banking financial companies are the largest providers of microfinance institutions loans.
Currently, there are 83 microfinance institutions with a loan amount outstanding of Rs 1.2 trillion, accounting for 38.5% of the total industry portfolio. Banks hold the second largest share of portfolio in micro-credit with total loan outstanding of Rs 1.1 trillion, which is 35.7% of the total micro-credit universe.
Specifically, the gross loan portfolio of micro-financiers rose 35% y-o-y to Rs 1.1 trillion as on December 31.
Loans worth nearly `33,800 crore were disbursed through 7.91 million accounts in the December quarter.
The average loan amount disbursed per account during the December quarter rose 15.1% y-o-y to Rs 42,687 in the December quarter.
In terms of regional distribution of gross loan portfolio, the East & Northeast and South zones account for 63% of the total portfolio. Bihar is the largest state in terms of portfolio outstanding, followed by Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
In terms of asset quality, micro-financiers with a portfolio at risk of more than 180 days fell to 3% as on December 31, from 4.5% a year ago.
Micro-financiers with a portfolio at risk of more than 30 days fell to 6.1% as on December 31 from 11.9% a year ago.
In the December quarter, micro-financiers received a total debt funding of nearly `16,000 crore in debt funding, higher than 22.5% a year ago.
The total equity of micro-financiers grew 29% y-o-y to nearly `24,900 crore as on December 31.
“I do not think funding has become difficult for larger MFIs. In the case of smaller MFIs, the funding constraint is a little amplified. In other cases, it is almost normal,” Alok Misra, CEO & director, Microfinance Institutions Network, said.