Banks lent 19.5% more to industry this year. A year ago, that growth was 7.7%.
Bank loans to industry grew 19.5% this year, against 7.7% a year ago. Services credit grew 28.3% and personal loans 17.3%.
CapitalVia Research Desk ·
Data story · 3 Nov 2026
Household borrowing · RBI, August 2026
Gold loans grew 83% in a year. Credit card dues grew 3.6%.
Indians are borrowing against the jewellery at home far faster than they are swiping cards. A year ago the two were almost the same size. Now gold loans are nearly twice as big.
Bank loans against gold jewellery, 31 Aug 2026
₹5.59 lakh crore
Credit card outstanding: ₹2.99 lakh crore
From a tie to almost 2 : 1
Outstanding with banks, ₹ lakh crore
August 2025
Gold loans3.05
Credit cards2.89
August 2026
Gold loans5.59
Credit cards2.99
Ratio of gold loans to card dues: 1.06× in Aug 2025 → 1.87× in Aug 2026.
24×
In one year, banks added ₹2.54 lakh crore of gold loans and just ₹10,510 crore of credit card dues. Gold loans grew 24 times more, in rupees.
Fastest-growing personal loans
Year-on-year growth to 31 Aug 2026, %
Loans against gold jewellery83.2
Loans against fixed deposits43.2
Vehicle loans19.7
All personal loans16.9
Other personal loans15.0
Education13.2
Against shares & bonds12.7
Housing11.1
Credit card outstanding3.6
Consumer durables2.4
The two fastest-growing loans are both backed by something the borrower already owns.
Where ₹10.5 lakh crore of new personal loans went
Share of the rise in bank personal loans, Aug 2025 → Aug 2026
Housing32.8%
Gold loans24.1%
Other personal22.2%
Vehicle12.1%
Against FDs5.8%
Education, cards & rest3.0%
Gold loans are 7.7% of all bank personal loans, yet took nearly a quarter of the growth. Credit cards took 1.0%.
Why it matters
Salaried
A gold loan is secured, so it usually costs less than a revolving card balance. But it is tied to the price of gold: if prices fall, a lender can ask you to top up or sell the pledged jewellery.
Founders
Spend-linked credit is flat: cards +3.6%, consumer durable loans +2.4%. Households are raising cash against assets, not borrowing to shop. Plan demand on that.
Leaders
Asset-backed borrowing is doing the heavy lifting in retail credit. That leans on gold prices staying high, which is a concentrated bet for lenders and the households behind them.
Read this carefully
- Bank data only. Gold loans from NBFCs such as specialist gold lenders are not included, so the true total is larger.
- Rising gold prices lift the value of each pledge, so part of the growth is bigger loans on the same jewellery, not only more borrowers.
- Since May 2024 one bank has moved some farm loans into this category; both years here are after that change.
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