Women exhibit better credit profiles than men: TransUnion CIBIL report

Further, the 90+ days-past-due (DPD) consumer-level delinquency rate for women borrowers’ stands at 5.2% across retail credit products compared to that of their male counterparts at 6.9%, indicating that women tend to be more disciplined borrowers.

These are the findings of the TransUnion CIBIL’s annual retail credit insights on women borrowers.

Insights from the analysis showed that the number of women borrowers has increased at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19% in the last five years compared with 14% for male borrowers during the same period.

Further, the share of women borrowers has increased to 29% in 2021, up from 25% in 2016. Additionally, credit penetration for women (percentage of borrowers to total adult population) has improved to 12% in 2021 from 6% in 2016.

The data showed that growth in women borrowers has remained strong despite the aftermath of the covid-19 pandemic, with women borrowers showing a stronger rate of growth at 11% compared to the 6% growth rate of male borrowers through CY 2021.

Harshala Chandorkar, chief operating officer of TransUnion CIBIL said: “With the rapid evolution in India’s credit sector, women can now more easily avail affordable credit opportunities to fulfil their primary life goals like education, home, car, entrepreneurship and also other aspirational goals like holidays, smartphones and high-end consumer durables.”

Analysis of the data showed rapid growth in credit uptake by women across India’s rural and urban geography. India’s estimated population of 1,400 million comprises approximately 435 million adult females of which only about 54 million females are active borrowers.

TransUnion CIBIL insights also indicated expansion in the footprint of women borrowers in the semi-urban and rural locations, with a CAGR of 21% between CY 2016 and CY 2021 compared with 16% growth in metro and urban regions. The overall share of women borrowers in these semi-rural and rural locations, compared to urban, has risen to 62%, marking an increase of 5% during the same period.

The company said that in CY 2021, more than 5.7 million women accessed their CIBIL score and report.

In terms of the type of loans availed by self-monitoring women borrowers, the report showed that personal loans and consumer durable loans topped the list, with 43% availing a personal loan and 19% availing a consumer durable loan.