Women borrowers are on a significant rise and they are lapping up more loans against their gold jewellery, a recent study has shown.

Between 2019 and 2024, 4 crore women have taken loans worth Rs 4.7 lakh crore by pledging their gold. This accounts for 38% of all loans taken by women in 2024, according to a joint report by TransUnion CIBIL, Niti Aayog's Women Entrepreneurship Platform and MicroSave Consulting. There has been a five-fold increase in gold loan volumes since 2019. 

As per the study, 22% women borrowers have been added on a compounded basis every year between 2019 and 2024 and gold loans have been their preferred option.  They are actively monitoring their credit scores.

Around 60% of the borrowers are coming from semi-urban and rural areas. "This underscores a deepening financial footprint of women borrowers beyond metro cities," the report said.

Younger women are driving the trend in credit monitoring too, with 56% on-year increase in their numbers, accounting for 22% of the self-monitoring women population in 2024. Gen Z refers to those born between 1997 and 2012.

Millennials, who are born between 1981 and 1996, also demonstrated significant growth, with a 38% on-year rise, making up 52% of the self-monitoring women population in 2024.

Personal finance credit - comprising personal loans, loans for consumer durables, home and vehicle loans - is a dominant segment for women borrowers, who availed 4.3 crore loans worth Rs 4.8 lakh crore in 2024. This accounts for 42% of all loans taken by women during that year.

The report also noted an increase in women monitoring their credit scores. As of December 2024, 2.7 crore women borrowers were tracking their credit health, a 42% surge from 1.9 crore in December 2023.

Women's representation in the self-monitoring credit base increased to 19.4% in 2024, up 17.9% from the previous year.

Forty-four percent of women borrowers who tracked their credit history saw their credit scores improve within six months. Notably, among women with overdue payments of 90+ days at the time of credit check, 17.5% transitioned to a lower delinquency category, while 11.4% became standard borrowers within six months.

There has been an overall surge in gold loans. As per RBI data, the gold loan portfolio of banks rose 71.3% year-on-year till December 2024 to Rs 1.72 lakh crore compared to 17% growth a year ago.