The microfinance loan portfolio of all lenders grew about 10% year-on-year to Rs 2.56 lakh crore at the end of December, 2021, compared with Rs 2.33 lakh crore a year back, data released by Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) showed.

Microfinance operations witnessed a steady growth after being impacted by the second wave of Covid in the first part of this fiscal year,” the industry organisation said.

The sector served 5.57 crore unique borrowers through 10.58 crore loan accounts.

At the end of last year, 13 banks together held the largest share of the micro loan portfolio with total loan outstanding at Rs 1.04 lakh crore, which is 40.4% of total microfinance universe. NBFC-MFIs are second largest provider of micro-loans with collective loan outstanding of Rs 87,444 crore,

accounting for a 34.2% share. Small Finance Banks have a total loan amount outstanding of Rs 42,847 crore with total share of 16.7%. NBFCs account for another 7.6% share and other MFIs account for 1.1% of the universe, MFIN data showed.

The NBFC-MFIs portfolio rose 21.2% year-on-year, while banks’ micro loan outstanding grew 5.7% . The respective loan growth for small finance banks and other MFIs were 9.7% and 7.6%. The portfolio of standalone NBFC however decreased by 8.2%. This is based on loans originated after February 2017.

Loan disbursals during the December 2021 quarter improved to Rs 65,392 crores as compared with Rs 59,508 crore in the year ago period.