MFIs grew 15% at Rs 1.9 L crore during April-December: Icra

Team Udayavani, Mar 2, 2018, 11:33 AM IST

Mumbai: Helped by improvement in monthly collection efficiencies, the microfinance industry registered a 15% year-on-year growth at around Rs 1.9 lakh crore during April to December last year, says a report.

Within this, the portfolio outstanding under the NBFC-MFIs, microfinance focused small finance banks (SFBs) and universal banks grew at a faster pace of 19%. The sectors collection efficiency has been improving steadily with the monthly collection efficiencies (including overdue collections) up to 97% for December last year, from sub-90% till March, Icra said in a report.

For disbursements made in calendar year 2017, most of the lenders reported 98-plus% collection efficiencies. According to the rating agency, improved collection efficiency trends, coupled with portfolio growth and some write-offs led to an improvement in 0 days past due (0+ dpd) delinquencies for the sector, from the peak of 23.6% in February 2017 to 12.6% in December 2017. While the harder bucket delinquencies have also been declining, as reflected by 90+ dpd percentage declining from a peak of 12.2% in June 2017 to 9.9% in December 2017, the degree of reduction has been lower, owing to sticky delinquencies in the affected geographies, it noted.

“We expect the industry portfolio to increase to Rs 2-2.1 lakh crore by end of FY18 and maintain an annualised growth of 20-22% over the medium term with a higher growth of 25-30% per annum for the non-SHG portfolio,” said Supreeta Nijjar, sector head (financial sector ratings), Icra.