Loan seekers sharing bank data 3x more likely to get business loans: Study

MUMBAI: Borrowers with no credit history were more than three times as likely to get a business loan of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh through lenders using the Account Aggregator (AA) framework than through conventional channels, a study by CRIF Credit Information Services and industry alliance Sahamati showed.

New-to-credit borrowers accounted for 28.5% of loans in this category disbursed by AA-enabled lenders in the 12 months ended June 2026, compared with 8.6% for other lenders. In personal loans, first-time borrowers accounted for 9% of AA-enabled originations against 3.8% through conventional channels.

The report, titled “Consent to Credit: The Digital Way”, examines how consent-based financial data sharing is changing retail and MSME lending using credit bureau data. The AA framework facilitated an estimated Rs 3.82 lakh crore in loan disbursals across 3.68 crore accounts in FY26. It accounted for 8.4% of retail and MSME lending by value and 11.8% by volume, equivalent to around 1.1% of India’s GDP.

As of Aug 2026, the ecosystem had 16 operational AAs, 176 financial information providers and 1,144 financial information users regulated by RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and PFRDA. More than 566 million consents had been fulfilled, while retail users had linked over 338 million bank accounts. Banks accounted for 47.3% of AA-enabled lending by value in the second half of FY26, with NBFCs accounting for the remaining 52.7%.

The framework allows lenders to access machine-readable financial data directly from banks with borrowers’ consent, replacing physical documents, PDF uploads and screen-scraping. This enables them to assess repayment capacity using actual cash flows rather than relying mainly on credit histories.

AA-enabled personal loans had an average ticket size of Rs 2.7 lakh, compared with Rs 1.8 lakh through conventional channels. Average auto loan sizes were Rs 8.1 lakh against Rs 6.8 lakh, while two-wheeler loans averaged Rs 1.2 lakh against Rs 1 lakh.

Lenders using AA also recorded faster portfolio growth. Over the two years ended June 2026, their housing and property loan portfolios grew at a compound annual growth rate of 32.9%, compared with 14.3% for other lenders. Active housing loan accounts increased 26.6% against 10.2%. In personal loans, AA-enabled lenders recorded portfolio growth of 30.9% annually, while active loan accounts rose 7.9%. Non-AA lenders recorded a 2% contraction in active accounts.

Portfolio expansion coincided with lower or stable delinquencies. In two-wheeler loans, the share of loans overdue by more than 90 days fell to 0.5% for AA-enabled originations, compared with 5.3% for conventional loans. For business loans below Rs 10 lakh, the corresponding delinquency rates were 4.1% for AA loans and 4.4% for other loans. Personal loan delinquencies stood at 2% and 2.2%, respectively. Lenders are also using recurring consent to monitor borrower balances before EMI due dates to reduce payment failures and manage collections.

The framework has expanded lending in smaller towns. Tier-3 and smaller centres accounted for 47.5% of business loan value originated through AA, compared with 32.9% through conventional channels. Their share was 40.1% in loans against property, against 25%, and 36.8% in home loans, compared with 31.5%.

The report also draws on research by CAFRAL, promoted by RBI, which examined the economic effects of the nationwide AA rollout. Using satellite-recorded night-time light intensity as a proxy for economic activity, researchers found that pincodes with greater exposure to the rollout recorded a 2.11% increase in local economic activity. The impact rose to 3.03% at the district level, suggesting that easier access to credit for informal and borrowers with limited credit histories can support wider economic activity.