Pulled down by a demand deceleration from urban and semi-urban customers and a contraction in personal and home loans, non-bankers loan book grew just about 2 per cent in Q4 FY23 to Rs 4,46,132 crore from Rs 4,38,345 crore a year ago when it soared 28 per cent year-on-year. Even this wouldn't have been possible had it not been for better demand from the hinterland, shows the latest data from the apex industry body FIDC (Finance & Industry Development Council). However, for the full year, the NBFC system-wide lending jumped a healthy 23.9 per cent to Rs 16,93,286 crore from Rs 12,87,484 crore. In absolute terms, incremental lending rose by 4,05,802 crore, according to the FIDC data.

 

The industry’s rural book rose to Rs 1,20,000 crore in Q4 from Rs 1,09,000 crore in Q1 of FY23, semi-urban rose from 47,000 crore in Q1 to Rs 50,000 crore in Q4, and the urban book rose to Rs 2,78,000 crore from Rs 2,74,000 crore in the reporting quarter. Of the total loan disbursed in the March 2023 quarter, rural lending rose 10 per cent to Rs 1,19,549 crore. As against this, lending to urban customers declined by 1 per cent to Rs 2,78,050 crore in the reporting quarter, while semi-urban customers borrowed sharply lower at Rs 50,427 crore, which was a 5 per cent degrowth from FY22.

 

On the other hand, vehicle loans saw strong demand with auto (personal) growing 34 per cent to Rs 21,889 crore; CVs up 20 per cent at Rs 30,662 crore; two-wheelers up 35 per cent to Rs 12,188 crore; construction equipment grew 36 per cent to Rs 4,552 crore; and equipment finance grew 24 per cent to Rs 1,673 crore, reflecting signs of capex improvement. Consumer loans were relatively flat growing just 4 per cent to Rs 21,605 crore, while gold loans, loans against property and unsecured business loans grew well, with the former clipping at 24 per cent to Rs 50,959 crore and the latter fared a tad better clipping at 29 per cent to Rs 45,284.5 crore, according to the industry data. The biggest drag was the unsecured personal loan, which de-grew by a steep 15 per cent to Rs 51,925 crore while home loans, which is the biggest segment, de-grew by a marginal 1 per cent to Rs 8,7102 crore.