NBFCs reported 15.8% credit growth in August 2026, up from 10% a year ago. This rise came as retail loans jumped 22% and agriculture loans grew 17.4%. While housing and gold loans saw big gains, credit to the services sector fell. Many firms used these segments to boost their total lending.
Non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) reported a strong 15.8 per cent year-on-year (yoy) growth in credit in August 2026 as compared to 10 per cent a year ago, on the back of a robust pick-up in retail loans, especially housing loans, loans against gold jewellery and consumer durables loans, and loans to agriculture and allied activities.
While credit to industry grew marginally, credit to services decelerated, according to RBI data on sectoral deployment of credit by NBFCs for August 2026.
Retail loans growth accelerated to 22 per cent (yoy) in August 2026 compared to 13.6 per cent a year ago.
Within retail loans, 'housing loans' (12.1 per cent yoy growth in August 2026 vs 3.8 per cent in August 2025), 'loans against gold jewellery' (69.1 per cent vs 46.8 per cent) and consumer durables loans (56.4 per cent vs 19.6 per cent) witnessed accelerated credit growth, while 'vehicle loans' (15.4 per cent vs 15 per cent) maintained its robust growth with a marginal uptick.
Credit to agriculture and allied activities recorded a robust growth of 17.4 per cent (yoy) in August 2026, as against 5.1 per cent a year ago
Credit to industry grew marginally to 8.4 per cent (yoy) in August 2026 as compared with 8.3 per cent in August 2025. Within industry, credit growth to 'infrastructure' remained steady at 7.2 per cent.
Credit growth in the services sector moderated to 16.2 per cent (yoy) in August 2026 from 24 per cent a year ago. While credit to 'commercial real estate' marked buoyant expansion (21.8 per cent vs 11.3 per cent), credit growth in the 'trade' (10.7 per cent vs 10.8 per cent) and 'transport operators' (15.6 per cent vs 21.4 per cent) segments witnessed deceleration.
Sectoral credit data of NBFCs are based on a sample of NBFCs in the Upper and Middle Layers, and Housing Finance Companies, accounting for about 87 per cent of total credit.