Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and Equifax, collaborated to launch a first-of its-kind newsletter “Microfinance Pulse” to track the trends in the microfinance sector viz. disbursements delinquencies, state-wise distribution, top loan categories etc.

This data will act as a lighthouse helping the microfinance industry and policymakers navigate through crests and troughs of lending cycle, so as to ultimately facilitate responsible lending.

Key highlights of the 9th edition:

COVID-19 has severly impacted the Microfinance sector owing to disruption it caused in supply chain &business operations, especially to the low-income group. The 9th edition of Microfinance Pulse, based ondata submission as on March 31st, 2021, covers the trends and progress of Microfinance Industry.

The book size of microfinance industry as on 31st March 2021 is `249,277 crore, of this, Banks andNBFC-MFIs contribute more than 75% of the portfolio outstanding. Microfinance industry witnessed 18%Y-o-Y growth from March 2020 to March 2021 in terms of portfolio outstanding showing its resilience andrecovering and returning back to the pre-COVID situation. Among lender categories, Banks have registeredhighest Y-o-Y growth of 36%, with consistent increase in market share.

Microfinance industry disbursed loans worth `93,100 crore during JFM’ 21. Loan disbursal in terms ofvolume witnessed Y-o-Y growth of 17% and 26% in terms of value from JFM’ 20 to JFM’ 21. Bankscontributed highest towards disbursement across all the quarters. Number of loan disbursed and all IndiaATS grew by 19% from OND’ 20 to JFM’ 21.

As the collection efficiency of the industry witnessed an improvement, the active loans delinquencybuckets are showing improvement in March 2021 compared to December 2020.

West Bengal is at the top with the highest POS having Y-o-Y growth at 25% which is higher than the industrygrowth of 18%. Maharashtra has moved to 6th position in March 2021 from 5th position in March 2020.Except Karnataka, 90+ delinquency of all the top states has increased in March 2021 compared to March2020.

In continuation of our process of focusing on a top state in MFI, we bring the comprehensive state profilefor the state of Karnataka in this edition. As on 31st March 2021 portfolio outstanding of Karnataka stoodat `20,330 crore and it witnessed Y-o-Y growth 16% from March 2020 to March 2021. Loan sourcing interms of volume in Karnataka state witnessed Y-o-Y growth of 12% from JFM’ 20 to JFM’ 21. Overall 90+delinquency for the state of Karnataka has come down to 1.73% in March 2021 from 2.41% in March 2020.

The COVID crisis and its impact on various zones of North, South, East and West is covered in this edition,the highest contribution towards disbursed amount is from East Zone at 45% of the total disbursedamount. Market share towards disbursed amount of Banks has increased from March 2020 to March 2021in all the zones. South zone witnessed highest Y-o-Y ATS growth of 13% from JFM’ 20 to JFM’ 21.