Gold Loan Book Doubles In 2 Years As Lenders See Ease Of Exposure Amid Surging Prices: Report

The gold loan portfolio across the system has nearly doubled to ₹15.6 lakh crore in two years to November 2025, as a spike in prices of the precious commodity encouraged lenders to increase their exposures to the safer segment, a report said on Wednesday.

There was a 42% spike in lending against gold in the year to November 2025, on top of the 39% growth in the year to November 2024, which led the portfolio to nearly double to ₹15.6 lakh crore from ₹7.9 lakh crore in November 2023.

The increased comfort in lending against gold has also pushed up the share of gold loans in the overall retail borrowing portfolio to 9.7% at the end of November from 8.1% a year back, the report by a credit information company said.

Crif High Mark said the portfolios are growing, driven by rising gold prices and strong collateral, and explained that the price surge in gold prices has lifted loan eligibility for borrowers.

The number of active loans grew by just 10.3%, and the loans above ₹2.5 lakh constitute nearly half of the book as of November 2025, up from 36.4% in March 2023, Crif High Mark said.

Over 56% of the gold loans are taken by male borrowers, even as the female borrowers display better repayment behaviour.

The fast-paced lending has led to a situation where the origination volumes and values of FY25 have surpassed within the first eight months of FY26 itself, the company said.

State-owned lenders hold a dominant 60% market share in the business, while gold-loan focused NBFCs (non banking finance companies) hold an 8.1% share of the portfolio outstanding.

From an asset quality perspective, the report said there was an improvement in repayments, and the portfolio in stress has reduced across all overdue buckets in the year to November 2025.

The gold loans portfolio demonstrates "one of the lowest delinquency levels" among all retail loans categories, it said.

From a regional distribution perspective, the report said, three-fourths of the portfolio is concentrated in the southern states, and the top-10 states have over 90% of the outstanding.

Gujarat led the portfolio growth at 67% in the year to November 2025, it said, adding that Karnataka and Maharashtra follow with over 50% growth.

On the stress building front, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Odisha lead with a higher proportion of unpaid loans.