NBFC growth steady despite risks: Crisil

MUMBAI: Non-bank finance companies are likely to maintain growth in assets under management at 18%, despite a cautious approach on lending in certain buckets due to high customer leverage, Crisil Ratings said on Monday. The overall AUM for the industry is expected to touch Rs 50 lakh crore by end of FY27 on the back of a steady 18%-19% growth per annum. “Exercising due caution on heightened customer leverage, NBFCs will adopt risk-calibrated growth, especially in the micro, medium and small enterprises (MSME) and unsecured loan segments,” its chief rating officer Krishnan Sitaraman said. The agency said unsecured MSME business loans, which constitute 6% of industry AUM, have seen an increase in delinquencies amid higher borrower leverage and adjacencies with the microfinance customer segment. This will result in the AUM growth slowing down to 13%-14% from over 31% seen in the last two fiscals, it added. In the case of personal loans, which constitute 11% of the industry AUM, the growth is expected to improve to 22%-25% from 18%.