Women Drive Rising Demand for Formal Credit in India

By: WE Staff | Wednesday, 8 April 2026

• A collaborative report mentions the changing dynamics where women are moving from being passive recipients of credit services to active demand generators
• The number of women availing of formal credit witnessed a CAGR of 9% from 2017 to 2025

TransUnion Cibil, NITI Aayog’s Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) and MicroSave Consulting have put together a report showing that there is a growing trend of women actively seeking out formal credit.

Between 2017 and 2025, there has been a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9 percent for female consumers accessing formal credit in India. During this same period, outstanding credit being given to women borrowers has increased 4.8 times, whereas overall credit has increased only 2.9 times.

Bhavesh Jain, Managing Director and CEO of TransUnion Cibil, believes this is due to more women engaging with the financial system.

The last few years have seen a significant expansion of digital infrastructure, enabling easier customer onboarding, much faster loan processing and an abundance of information regarding how to access these resources to grow their businesses.

The increase also includes more women entering into retail lending. The proportion of Women Borrower (Retail) accounted for 27 percent of total retail loan origination by 2025 compared to 24 percent in 2022.

As well, the number of New to Credit (NTC) women borrowers has increased to 38 percent in 2025 for the six retail credit categories published in their report indicating wider reach within traditionally under-served groups according to Nidhi Chhibber, CEO of NITI Aayog