Women increasingly seeking credit, monitoring credit scores: Report

ANI New Delhi

Women in India are increasingly seeking credit and actively monitoring their credit scores, a report launched by NITI Aayog on Monday said. NITI Aayog CEO BVR Subrahmanyam today launched the report titled "From Borrowers to Builders: Women's Role in India's Financial Growth Story".  As of December 2024, 27 million women were monitoring their credit, a 42 percent increase from the previous year, signaling growing financial awareness. 

TransUnion CIBIL, the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) of NITI Aayog, and MicroSave Consulting (MSC) have published the report. The report highlights that women's share of the total self-monitoring base increased to 19.43 percent in December 2024, up from 17.89 percent in 2023. More women from non-metro regions are actively self-monitoring their credit than those in metro areas, with growth of 48 percent in non-metro regions and 30 percent in metro areas. 

In 2024, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Telangana accounted for 49 percent of all self-monitoring women, with the southern region leading with 10.2 million. Northern and central states, including Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh, saw the highest compounded annual growth rates (CAGR) in active women borrowers over the past five years.

Since 2019, women's share in business loan origination has increased by 14 percent, and their share in gold loans has grown by 6 percent. By December 2024, women will account for 35 percent of business borrowers.  However, challenges such as credit aversion, poor banking experiences, barriers to credit readiness and issues with collateral and guarantors persist.