Microfinance Sector Calls for Robust KYC, Stable Funding to Boost Financial Inclusion

By:  Dr Alok Misra, CEO & Director, Microfinance Industry Network 

“The microfinance sector touching lives of nearly 30 crore low income people needs policy support in the form of robust KYC framework for accurate borrower verification and responsible credit reporting. In light of SC judgement restricting Aadhar use, the issue needs to be addressed through solutions such as Aadhaar last-four-digit storage or tokenisation. The other area requiring policy support is availability of stable funding mechanism. High dependence of NBFC-MFIs on bank funding leads to sudden drying up of funds and affects financial inclusion, like seen for last one year. This has resulted in nearly 50 lakh clients going out of formal finance fold.

Other than that, at a macro level, the sector has shown tangible improvement in credit discipline, with Portfolio at Risk (1–90 days) for RBI regulated entities declining from 5.3% in Dec 2024 to 2.4% by end December 2025 and nearly 96% of borrowers are within prescribed MFIN guardrails. We remain hopeful for an early announcement on the proposed credit guarantee scheme for microfinance, which will further strengthen lender confidence and start a virtuous cycle for the sector.”