Regulatory desk · RBI document · 7 Sep 2026
RBI data: in the year to July 2026, non-bank lenders' gold-jewellery loans rose 68.5%; all their lending rose 14.9%
The terms this paper uses
What an NBFC is and who it serves. A non-banking financial company, or NBFC, is a lender registered with the Reserve Bank of India that is not a bank: it lends to households and businesses but does not run current or savings accounts the way a bank does. There are 8,561 of them on the Reserve Bank's register at the end of June 2026. People who borrow from them, and the firms themselves, are who this page is for.
The other words this paper uses
What this release is. Every month the Reserve Bank of India publishes how NBFC lending is spread across the economy: to farming, to industry, to services and to individuals. This edition covers the position at the end of July 2026 and compares it with July 2025.
What year-on-year growth means. Year-on-year growth compares the amount lent out at the end of one month with the amount at the end of the same month a year before. NBFC credit as a whole grew 14.9 per cent over the year to July 2026, against 10.6 per cent over the year before that.
What retail loans are. Retail loans are loans to individuals rather than businesses: homes, vehicles, loans against gold jewellery and similar. NBFC retail loans outstanding stood at Rs 2,605,965.45 crore at the end of July 2026, up from Rs 2,146,004.13 crore a year earlier, a rise of Rs 459,961.32 crore.
What a loan against gold jewellery is. The borrower hands over gold jewellery as security and gets cash; if the loan is not repaid the lender can sell the gold. NBFC loans of this kind stood at Rs 353,987.66 crore at the end of July 2026, against Rs 210,062.13 crore a year earlier, a rise of Rs 143,925.53 crore or 68.5 per cent.
What 'outstanding' means. Outstanding is the amount still owed to lenders on a given date, not the amount newly lent that month. A rise in outstanding loans can come from more borrowers, from larger loans per borrower, or from slower repayment.
How the other kinds of NBFC lending moved. NBFC housing loans grew 11.87 per cent and vehicle loans 15.09 per cent over the year to July 2026. Lending to farming grew 18.0 per cent, while lending to industry slowed to 7.4 per cent and lending to services slowed to 15.2 per cent. The Reserve Bank says the industry slowdown was mainly due to subdued growth in infrastructure.
The bank figures set beside them. The Reserve Bank publishes the same split for banks. Banks' own loans against gold jewellery grew 83.23 per cent over the year to August 2026, banks' housing loans 11.13 per cent and banks' vehicle loans 19.74 per cent. The bank figures run a month later than the NBFC ones, so they are a guide, not an exact match.
In one line
Loans against gold jewellery are a small part of what NBFCs lend to individuals, but in the year to July 2026 they supplied a far bigger part of its growth. The Reserve Bank notes the gold-loan speed-up without giving a cause in the sentence that reports it; the one reason it does give is for industry, where it says NBFC lending slowed mainly because infrastructure lending was subdued.
What RBI published
NBFC credit growth over the year to July 2026 was higher than the growth a year earlier.
Where the paper says it · paragraph 2
“On a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, NBFCs’ credit registered a growth of 14.9 per cent in July 2026 as compared to 10.6 per cent a year ago.”
NBFC credit to agriculture and allied activities grew far faster than a year earlier.
Where the paper says it · paragraph 4
“Credit to agriculture and allied activities recorded a robust growth of 18.0 per cent (y-o-y) in July 2026 as against 5.4 per cent a year ago.”
NBFC retail loan growth sped up compared with a year earlier.
Where the paper says it · paragraph 7
“Retail loans growth accelerated to 21.4 per cent (y-o-y) in July 2026 compared to 13.7 per cent a year ago.”
NBFC credit to industry grew more slowly than a year earlier.
Where the paper says it · paragraph 5
“Credit to industry grew by 7.4 per cent (y-o-y) in July 2026 as compared with 9.3 per cent in July 2025.”
NBFC credit growth to services slowed sharply from a year earlier.
Where the paper says it · paragraph 6
“Credit growth in services sector moderated to 15.2 per cent (y-o-y) in July 2026 from 24.5 per cent a year ago.”
The month before, NBFC credit growth over the year to June 2026 was lower than the July figure and above a year earlier.
Where the paper says it · paragraph 2
“On a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, NBFCs’ credit registered a growth of 14.4 per cent in June 2026 as compared to 11.1 per cent a year ago.”
Why we call it a gold boom: NBFC gold-loan growth beside housing and vehicle loan growth, year to July 2026
Related releases on the same subject
- Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit – August 2026 (30 Sep 2026, a related release)
- Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit – July 2026 (31 Aug 2026, a related release): Bank credit to services grew much faster than a year earlier, supported by accelerated growth in lending to NBFCs, trade and commercial real estate.
- Sectoral Deployment of Credit by NBFC – June 2026 (7 Aug 2026, a related release): The month before, NBFC credit growth over the year to June 2026 was lower than the July figure and above a year earlier.
What we make of it opinion
What do these figures tell us?
Loans against gold jewellery are only about one rupee in seven of NBFC retail loans (Rs 353,987.66 crore of Rs 2,605,965.45 crore at the end of July 2026), yet they supplied about one rupee in three of the year's retail growth (Rs 143,925.53 crore of the Rs 459,961.32 crore added between July 2025 and July 2026). The Reserve Bank's own release says gold-loan growth accelerated but gives no cause in that sentence; the reason it does give is for industry, where it puts the slowdown mainly down to subdued infrastructure lending. Our guess: this is a gold boom rather than a lending boom, because NBFC gold loans grew 68.52 per cent while housing loans grew 11.87 per cent and vehicle loans 15.09 per cent, and banks' gold loans grew 83.23 per cent too, which points to the gold behind each loan being worth more rather than lenders lending more freely across the board; it would be confirmed by gold-loan growth slowing in a month when gold prices fall. What we don't know is where the extra gold-loan money came from: the same borrowers taking more against jewellery that is worth more, or lenders deliberately pushing gold loans to new customers through new branches.
Why we think so3 reasons
On what grounds?
- The first reason is the arithmetic of the year. Gold loans are about one rupee in seven of what NBFCs have lent to individuals, but of every rupee added to that pile between July 2025 and July 2026, about one in three was a gold loan: Rs 143,925.53 crore of the Rs 459,961.32 crore rise. A slice that small cannot carry that much of the growth unless it is growing many times faster than the rest, and it is, as the chart below shows.
- That speed is the second reason, and it is specific to gold. NBFC gold loans grew 68.52 per cent, while housing loans grew 11.87 per cent and vehicle loans 15.09 per cent. Banks, a separate set of lenders, show the same pattern: their gold loans grew 83.23 per cent against 11.13 per cent for their housing loans. With NBFC gold loans up 68.52 per cent and banks' gold loans up 83.23 per cent at the same time, far ahead of their other lending, our guess is that the common factor is the gold itself rather than either lender's appetite. Our inferred reading is that higher gold prices raise what each pledge can borrow, so the same jewellery supports a bigger loan without any new borrower.
- The third reason is the rival we cannot rule out. Gold lenders could equally have chosen to push gold loans hard, opening branches and signing up new customers. The sector totals cannot separate that from the gold-price reading, because both put more rupees on gold. What would separate them is a gold lender's own account of its quarter, saying whether loan size per customer or the number of customers rose.
What it says about why
The Reserve Bank gives one reason in its July 2026 release on NBFC lending, and it concerns industry, not gold. NBFC credit to industry grew 7.4 per cent in July 2026 against 9.3 per cent in July 2025, and the Reserve Bank says: “Moderation in growth was primarily driven by subdued growth in infrastructure, a major constituent of the segment.”
In its companion release on bank lending, the Reserve Bank ties part of banks' services lending to NBFCs: “Credit to services sector registered a y-o-y growth of 22.9 per cent (10.2 per cent in the corresponding fortnight of the previous year), supported by accelerated growth in segments such as ‘non-banking financial companies’ (NBFCs), ‘trade’ and ‘commercial real estate’.” That sentence explains bank credit to services, not NBFC lending; what it adds is that banks lent more to NBFCs, one source of the money NBFCs lend on.
Neither sentence is about loans against gold jewellery. On the gold-loan rise itself, RBI does not say why.
What drove it
Gold lenders
- Gold loans grew far faster than the year before: NBFC loans against gold jewellery grew 68.52 per cent over the year to July 2026, against 43.89 per cent over the year before, and the amount outstanding rose by Rs 143,925.53 crore to Rs 353,987.66 crore.
- Banks' gold loans grew faster still: 83.23 per cent over the year to August 2026.
- Manappuram credits its own push on gold loans and its pricing. In its call on the quarter to June 2026 it said: “In Q1 FY27, performance was driven by a strategic focus on gold loan growth, improved gold loan yields”, and on yields: “essentially, we had taken some pricing actions, which are beginning to kind of yield results to us, which is what you see in Q1 numbers.” Both speak of the firm's own quarter, not of the sector's year.
- Bajaj Finance is opening gold-loan branches. It says its running costs rose because of them: “The marginal increase principally reflects our accelerated investments in gold loan and MFI branch expansion as well as impact of new labor code.”
- Muthoot does not say why its gold lending moved.
Housing financiers
- Housing loans sped up: NBFC housing loans grew 11.87 per cent over the year to July 2026, against 3.99 per cent the year before.
- LIC Housing does not say why.
- Bajaj Housing's reason is about its bad-loan charge, not about how fast it lent: “So that's why the Stage 1 provisioning is lower and which results into credit cost being lower.”
Vehicle financiers
- Vehicle loans barely changed: NBFC vehicle loans grew 15.09 per cent, against 15.30 per cent the year before.
- Shriram says it borrowed little in the quarter: “On the liability side, this quarter, we didn't borrow much”.
- Cholamandalam credits cheaper bad loans and funding: “It has been delivered because net credit cost has come down, cost of fund is down, income has gone up.”
Farming, industry and services
- Farming lending sped up: NBFC lending to farming grew 17.97 per cent against 5.41 per cent a year earlier.
- Industry lending slowed, mainly because of infrastructure, the Reserve Bank says: it grew 7.38 per cent against 9.25 per cent.
- Services lending slowed to 15.19 per cent from 24.49 per cent; the Reserve Bank says commercial real estate expanded strongly while trade and transport operators slowed.
What the big lenders reported
Each line reads: firm (basis) | quarter | income growth | profit growth | its own reason, in one line.
- Cholamandalam (firm alone) | quarter to June 2026 | total income Rs 8,932.95 crore, up 21.9% | profit Rs 1,653.59 crore, up 45.6% | credit cost and cost of funds down, income up.
- Bajaj Finance (firm alone) | quarter to June 2026 | total income Rs 19,803.10 crore, up 19.7% | – | finance cost up 12.5% to Rs 5,874.34 crore; running costs up on new gold-loan and MFI branches and the new labour code.
- LIC Housing (firm alone) | quarter to June 2026 | total income Rs 7,065.53 crore, down 2.3% | profit Rs 1,488.32 crore, up 9.4% | does not say why.
- Muthoot Finance (firm alone) | quarter to June 2026 | total income Rs 7,603.05 crore | – | does not say why.
- Shriram Finance (group) | quarter to June 2026 | total income Rs 13,418.74 crore; its year-earlier figure is on a different basis, so no growth rate is set beside it | – | it borrowed little this quarter.
What would prove us wrong3 trip-wires
What would we have to see to drop that read?
- Gold loans keep growing just as fast in a month when gold prices fall, which would mean the growth does not depend on what the gold is worth.
- Gold lenders say in their next results calls that most of the rise came from new customers at new branches, not from larger loans per customer.
- Housing and vehicle loans speed up to match gold over the coming months, which would make this a broad lending boom after all.
What to watch3 things to watch
What happens next, and when would we know?
- The Reserve Bank's next monthly release on NBFC lending, set beside the direction of gold prices in that month.
- Muthoot Finance's and Manappuram Finance's next results calls, for whether they credit the price of gold or new branches and customers.
- Banks' gold-loan growth, now 83.23 per cent, for whether banks keep growing gold loans faster than NBFCs do.
The evidence
From RBI's paper, Sectoral Deployment of Credit by NBFC – July 2026, 7 Sep 2026. The paper.
Also in the papers — what the rule is today, who is covered, and by when
From Sectoral Deployment of Credit by NBFC – July 2026:
| Where | What it says | The paper's words |
|---|---|---|
| paragraph 7 | Within retail, housing and gold-jewellery loans accelerated while vehicle loans held steady. | “Within retail loans, ‘housing’ and ‘loans against gold jewellery’ segments displayed accelerated credit growth, while ‘vehicle loans’ maintained steady growth.” |
| paragraph 5 | RBI says the slowdown in industry credit was mainly due to subdued growth in infrastructure, a major part of the segment. | “Moderation in growth was primarily driven by subdued growth in infrastructure, a major constituent of the segment.” |
| paragraph 6 | Within services, commercial real estate expanded strongly while trade and transport operators slowed. | “While credit to ‘commercial real estate’ marked buoyant expansion, credit growth in ‘trade’ and ‘transport operators’ segments witnessed deceleration.” |
From Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit – July 2026:
| Where | What it says | The paper's words |
|---|---|---|
| paragraph 6 | Bank credit to services grew much faster than a year earlier, supported by accelerated growth in lending to NBFCs, trade and commercial real estate. | “Credit to services sector registered a y-o-y growth of 22.9 per cent (10.2 per cent in the corresponding fortnight of the previous year), supported by accelerated growth in segments such as ‘non-banking financial companies’ (NBFCs), ‘trade’ and ‘commercial real estate’.” |
| Figure | Reading | Date | A year earlier | Where from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NBFCs registered with RBI, all NBFCs on the list (the last serial number RBI prints) | 8,561 | 30 Jun 2026 | rbidocs.rbi.org.in | |
| NBFC credit to agriculture and allied activities, year-on-year growth | 17.97 percent | 31 Jul 2026 | +12.57 percent, +232.4%, against 5.41 percent at 31 Jul 2025 | rbi.org.in |
| NBFC loans against gold jewellery, year-on-year growth | 68.52 percent | 31 Jul 2026 | +24.62 percent, +56.1%, against 43.89 percent at 31 Jul 2025 | rbi.org.in |
| NBFC housing loans, year-on-year growth | 11.87 percent | 31 Jul 2026 | +7.88 percent, +197.4%, against 3.99 percent at 31 Jul 2025 | rbi.org.in |
| NBFC credit to industry, year-on-year growth | 7.38 percent | 31 Jul 2026 | −1.87 percent, −20.2%, against 9.25 percent at 31 Jul 2025 | rbi.org.in |
| NBFC credit to services, year-on-year growth | 15.19 percent | 31 Jul 2026 | −9.30 percent, −38.0%, against 24.49 percent at 31 Jul 2025 | rbi.org.in |
| NBFC vehicle loans, year-on-year growth | 15.09 percent | 31 Jul 2026 | −0.21 percent, −1.4%, against 15.30 percent at 31 Jul 2025 | rbi.org.in |
| Bank loans against gold jewellery, year-on-year growth | 83.23 percent | 31 Aug 2026 | rbi.org.in | |
| NBFC retail loans, outstanding | Rs 2,605,965.45 crore | 31 Jul 2026 | +Rs 459,961.32 crore, +21.4%, against Rs 2,146,004.13 crore at 31 Jul 2025 | rbi.org.in |
| NBFC loans against gold jewellery, outstanding | Rs 353,987.66 crore | 31 Jul 2026 | +Rs 143,925.53 crore, +68.5%, against Rs 210,062.13 crore at 31 Jul 2025 | rbi.org.in |
| Total income, one NBFC, from its own quarterly filing -- Bajaj Finance Limited | Rs 19,803.10 crore | 30 Jun 2026 | +Rs 3,254.43 crore, +19.7%, against Rs 16,548.67 crore at 30 Jun 2025 | nsearchives.nseindia.com |
| Finance cost, one lender, from its own quarterly filing -- Bajaj Finance Limited | Rs 5,874.34 crore | 30 Jun 2026 | +Rs 653.29 crore, +12.5%, against Rs 5,221.05 crore at 30 Jun 2025 | nsearchives.nseindia.com |
| Total income, one NBFC, from its own quarterly filing -- Shriram Finance Limited | Rs 13,418.74 crore | 30 Jun 2026 | nsearchives.nseindia.com | |
| Total income, one NBFC, from its own quarterly filing -- Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company Limited | Rs 8,932.95 crore | 30 Jun 2026 | +Rs 1,602.17 crore, +21.9%, against Rs 7,330.78 crore at 30 Jun 2025 | nsearchives.nseindia.com |
| Profit for the period, one NBFC, from its own quarterly filing -- Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company Limited | Rs 1,653.59 crore | 30 Jun 2026 | +Rs 517.68 crore, +45.6%, against Rs 1,135.91 crore at 30 Jun 2025 | nsearchives.nseindia.com |
| Total income, one NBFC, from its own quarterly filing -- Muthoot Finance Limited | Rs 7,603.05 crore | 30 Jun 2026 | nsearchives.nseindia.com | |
| Total income, one NBFC, from its own quarterly filing -- LIC Housing Finance Limited | Rs 7,065.53 crore | 30 Jun 2026 | -Rs 167.61 crore, −2.3%, against Rs 7,233.14 crore at 30 Jun 2025 | nsearchives.nseindia.com |
| Profit for the period, one NBFC, from its own quarterly filing -- LIC Housing Finance Limited | Rs 1,488.32 crore | 30 Jun 2026 | +Rs 128.40 crore, +9.4%, against Rs 1,359.92 crore at 30 Jun 2025 | nsearchives.nseindia.com |
What else we hold on this
We hold 5 other Reserve Bank of India documents on this subject, published between 24 Jun 2026 and 30 Sep 2026 — and none of them has become a card. They are the store's, not the paper's: nothing below is cited by the document above.
- Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit – August 202630 Sep 2026 · no card written
- Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit – July 202631 Aug 2026 · no card written
- Sectoral Deployment of Credit by NBFC – June 20267 Aug 2026 · no card written
- Sectoral Deployment of Credit by NBFC – May 20267 Jul 2026 · no card written
- RBI issues Amendment Directions on ‘review of methodology for identification of…24 Jun 2026 · no card written
Go deeper
Whether we have said this before
0 of them became a card.
Audit trail: how this card was checked, and the store's own notes
Status: Clear. the figures are published and every figure is quoted from the Reserve Bank of India's own text
Exact figures: 10 quoted facts from Sectoral Deployment of Credit by NBFC – July 2026; the warning on every one: none.