Mumbai, Dec 5 (PTI) The number of microfinance loans extended by all lenders declined in the September quarter, but an increase in the average ticket sizes helped in the quantum of lending to grow, a report said on Tuesday.

The industry's self-regulatory body Microfinance Industry Network (MFIN) said the overall loan portfolio grew to Rs 3,76,110 crore at the end of September, up from Rs 3,55,977 crore in the previous quarter and Rs 3,00,974 crore in the year-ago period.

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The financiers made loans of Rs 76,054 crore in the September quarter as compared to Rs 71,916 crore in the year-ago period, but the number of loans declined to 1.69 crore from 1.81 crore.

The average loan size increased to Rs 45,124 at the end of September as against Rs 39,725 in the year-ago period, and Rs 43,298 in the quarter-ago period, the report said.

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MFIN's chief executive and director Alok Misra said the industry added 1.9 crore unique borrowers in the first six months of the new fiscal, helping the wider agenda of financial inclusion.

Among the lenders, the dedicated Non-Banking Financial Company-MFIs (NBFC-MFIs) continued to lead the pack with a 39.3 per cent share of the overall loan portfolio, and was followed by banks at 31.6 per cent and small finance banks at 19.4 per cent.

However, on the asset quality front, the NBFC-MFIs segment reported a slip, with the proportion of loans unserviced for over 30 days by borrowers doubling to 0.6 per cent in September from 0.3 per cent in June 2023.

All other segments beyond the NBFC-MFIs showed an improvement in asset quality.

From a geographical spread perspective, the East, Northeast, and South India together account for 63 per cent of the total portfolio, the report said, adding that Bihar is the largest state in terms of portfolio outstanding followed by Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh.

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