India’s credit reporting backbone runs through one company that holds files on more Indians than the population of any country other than India or China. TransUnion CIBIL maintains credit records on roughly 600 million individuals and 32 million businesses, per TransUnion CIBIL’s own company disclosures.

The way those records moved through the year tells the story of an Indian retail credit market that found its footing again after a hard reset.

Key Takeaways

TransUnion CIBIL maintains credit files on roughly 600 million individuals and 32 million businesses across India, the largest consumer dataset of any Indian credit bureau.
India’s Consumer Credit Market Indicator (CMI) increased to 102 for the quarter ended December 2025, up from 97 in the quarter ended December 2024, the third consecutive quarter of improvement.
The number of Indians who self-monitor their CIBIL Score rose to 183 million as of December 2025, with the average score in this cohort at 728.
The commercial lending portfolio tracked by TransUnion CIBIL stood at ₹67.5 lakh crore as of December 2025, growing 16% year-on-year on a 17% CAGR since 2020.
TransUnion’s India segment generated $264.2 million in full-year 2025 revenue, with constant-currency growth of 2.1% against a 1.9% reported decline.
Personal loan delinquency improved to 1.14% as of March 2025, from 1.37% as of September 2024, while micro-loan against property (LAP) delinquency rose 35 basis points YoY to 3.1% in December 2025.
Gold loans now represent the largest share by volume (36%) and by value (39%) among all retail loan categories, reshaping the credit-supply mix.

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The headline retail trend of 2025 was the gold-loan boom: since March 2023, the average gold loan ticket size has increased 1.8 times, with the December 2025 quarter average ticket standing at ₹1.9 lakh.
Three states drove the gold-loan expansion outside its traditional southern base: Uttar Pradesh recorded 96% YoY growth in gold loan origination volumes, Madhya Pradesh 80% and Rajasthan 79%.
First-time borrowers came back: The first-time-borrowers (FTB) segment grew 7% by originating consumers YoY in the December 2025 quarter, with personal loans for this cohort up 20% YoY versus a 3% decline a year earlier.
Self-monitoring is now generational: Gen Z constituted 29% of the total monitoring base as of December 2025, and Millennials plus Gen Z together account for 77% of all monitoring consumers.
Women’s credit ownership jumped: Women’s engagement grew at 38% YoY, compared to 25% among men, lifting their share of monitoring consumers to 21% from 19%.
The parent company is paying attention: TransUnion’s India revenue was $60.4 million in Q4 2025, down 9% on a reported basis and down 4% on a constant-currency basis, reflecting what management described as a reset year for unsecured lending.
Commercial credit access remains thin: About 7.7 crore Udyam-registered enterprises are active on the Ministry of MSME platform, but only about 3.6 crore businesses are credit active as of December 2025.

TransUnion CIBIL Database: Scale and Composition

The headline scale numbers for TransUnion CIBIL:

600 million individual consumer credit files maintained.
32 million business credit files maintained on the commercial bureau.
3.6 crore credit-active businesses inside the commercial-bureau footprint (about 36 million).
7.7 crore Udyam-registered enterprises on the Ministry of MSME platform (about 77 million addressable).
92.1% TransUnion ownership stake in the bureau, established in the 2016 acquisition.

TransUnion CIBIL was incorporated in Mumbai in August 2000 and launched its consumer credit bureau in 2004, with commercial bureau operations beginning in 2006, according to TransUnion CIBIL company disclosures. The company positions itself as “India’s pioneer information and insights company,” serving banks, financial institutions, NBFCs, housing finance companies, microfinance lenders and insurance firms.

Files on roughly 600 million individual borrowers and 32 million businesses feed the country’s underwriting workflows on every new credit card and personal loan application.

On the commercial side, per TransUnion CIBIL’s MSME Pulse report, the bureau identified about 3.6 crore credit-active businesses as of December 2025, against a 7.7-crore pool of Udyam-registered enterprises on the Ministry of MSME platform. That gap is where the next wave of microloans and small-ticket commercial credit is expected to land.

Key finding: The CIBIL consumer file count of 600 million is more than double Brazil’s adult-credit footprint and roughly four times the United Kingdom’s, making CIBIL the largest single-country credit-information dataset outside the US Big Three (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion’s own US operation), while the 32-million commercial file base puts it ahead of any single Asian peer outside China.

The 2016 ownership shift matters for governance discipline: TransUnion acquired a 92.1% stake in CIBIL in 2016, and the bureau was rebranded TransUnion CIBIL. Reserve Bank of India regulation under the Credit Information Companies (Regulation) Act sits on top of that ownership structure.

Metric	December 2025 figure
Individual consumer credit files maintained	600 million
Business credit files maintained	32 million
Credit-active businesses (commercial bureau)	3.6 crore (≈36 million)
Udyam-registered enterprises (addressable pool)	7.7 crore (≈77 million)
TransUnion ownership stake in CIBIL (as of 2016 acquisition)	92.1%

Source: TransUnion CIBIL company disclosures and MSME Pulse April 2026 report.

How many consumers does TransUnion CIBIL cover in India?

TransUnion CIBIL maintains credit files on roughly 600 million individual consumers and 32 million businesses in India. On the commercial side, the bureau separately tracks about 3.6 crore businesses credit-active as of December 2025 (either as enterprises or in self-employed capacity), against a broader pool of roughly 7.7 crore Udyam-registered enterprises on the Ministry of MSME platform, which gives lenders both the scale of current participation and a yardstick for the credit headroom that still sits outside the formal underwriting funnel.

Credit Market Indicator (CMI)

The Credit Market Indicator, per TransUnion CIBIL publications, is the cleanest single-number read on Indian retail credit health that the bureau produces. The index combines four pillars: demand, supply, consumer behaviour and performance, into a comparable quarterly reading.

CMI 97: Quarter ending March 2025. A two-year low for the index, with origination growth slowed to 5% YoY in March 2025, compared to 12% in March 2024.
CMI 98 → 99: Quarters ending June and September 2025. The index rose to 99 for the July to September 2025 quarter, up from 98 in April to June 2025, helped by the September 2025 Goods and Services Tax rationalisation (GST 2.0) and the festive-season demand pulse.
CMI 102: Quarter ending December 2025. The CMI reached 102, up from 97 a year earlier and 100 in the preceding quarter, marking the third consecutive quarter of improvement, per TransUnion CIBIL’s March 2026 Credit Market Report.

The shape of the recovery matters more than the level. CMI is a relative index, not an absolute health score, and the move from 97 to 102 across three quarters is the kind of grind-back that suggests both lender discipline and policy-side help (GST 2.0) doing real work in tandem. The composition is what we look at next.

What was India’s Credit Market Indicator?

India’s Consumer Credit Market Indicator reached 102 for the quarter ended December 2025, up from 100 in the September 2025 quarter and 97 in the December 2024 quarter. That year-over-year gain was the third consecutive quarter of improvement and reflected gains across all four sub-indices, with the performance pillar the strongest contributor.

CMI Pillars: Where the Recovery Came From

Breaking the CMI into its four pillars shows where the lift actually came from in the December quarter.

Performance: 107. Moved from 101 in December 2024 to 107 in December 2025, a six-point lift.
Demand: 96. Rose to 96 in the December 2025 quarter from 92 a year earlier, with semi-urban and rural consumers lifting their share of the total retail borrower base to 54%, an increase of three percentage points over the year-ago period. New-to-Credit consumers added one percentage point to reach 15% of total borrowers.
Supply: 98. Climbed from 91 to 98 over the same year, with the bulk of the volume coming through the gold-loan channel.

The four-pillar split is useful because it separates lender appetite (supply) from borrower interest (demand) and isolates the part most likely to predict next year’s stress (performance). Performance leading the recovery, rather than supply running ahead of it, is the healthier sequencing for a credit cycle.

Recent Developments in TransUnion CIBIL

March 2026: TransUnion CIBIL’s March 2026 Credit Market Report recorded the December 2025 CMI at 102, the third consecutive quarter of improvement.
March 2026: 183 million Indians now self-monitor their CIBIL Score, with consumers monitoring their CIBIL Score for the first time growing 27% year-over-year as of December 2025.
April 2026: The MSME Pulse Report April 2026 edition pegged the commercial lending portfolio at ₹67.5 lakh crore as of December 2025, with the commercial-portfolio delinquency rate at a five-year low of 1.87%.
December 2025: TransUnion CIBIL reported indexed consumer durable loan demand rising to 189 in 2025 from 128 in 2024.
February 2026: TransUnion’s Q4 2025 earnings release reported India segment revenue of $60.4 million for the quarter and $264.2 million for the full year.

Retail Product Mix: Gold Loans Take the Lead

The composition of retail credit shifted decisively toward secured, gold-backed lending:

Gold loans now represent the largest share by volume (36%) and by value (39%) among all retail loan categories, accounting for more than one third of total retail loan supply.

The geographic spread also widened.

Three states recorded above-average YoY growth in gold loan origination volumes: Uttar Pradesh at 96%, Madhya Pradesh at 80% and Rajasthan at 79%.
The average ticket size hit ₹1.9 lakh for the three months ended December 2025, up 1.8 times since March 2023, tracking gold-price appreciation through the year.

Gold loans crossing into the prime borrower base reads as a structural change rather than a cyclical one. Indian household balance sheets carry roughly 11% of global above-ground gold stock, so the asset is doing real underwriting work, not just acting as a collateral fig leaf.

Retail Delinquency Rates

Performance pillar gains rested on broadly steady-to-improving balance-level delinquencies in the cards and personal-loan books.

Personal loans improved from 1.37% in September 2024 to 1.14% in March 2025.
Credit card balance-level delinquency stabilised at 2.00% as of March 2025, against 2.04% in December 2024 and 2.02% in September 2024.
Property loans balance-level 90+ days delinquencies stood at 1.4% as of September 2025, improving 29 basis points YoY.

The single category where stress kept building was micro-loan against property (LAP):

Balance-level 90-plus days delinquency in micro-LAP rose 45 basis points YoY to reach 3.3% as of September 2025.
Balance-level 90+ DPD delinquency in micro-LAP measured 3.1% in December 2025, up 35 basis points YoY.

Small-ticket housing also showed early stress signals. These pockets sit inside a broadly stable book that has translated into improving overall credit health at the mortgage end of the portfolio.

What is the delinquency rate on Indian personal loans and credit cards?

The 90-plus days past due balance-level delinquency rate on Indian personal loans stood at 1.14% as of March 2025, improved from 1.34% as of December 2024 and 1.37% as of September 2024. For credit cards, the same metric stabilised at 2.00% as of March 2025, compared to 2.04% as of December 2024 and 2.02% as of September 2024.

183 Million Indians Now Self-Monitor Their CIBIL Score

Headline self-monitoring readings from the CIBIL for Every Indian release:

As of December 2025, the number of Indians who had self-monitored their CIBIL Score rose to 183 million across age groups.
Consumers monitoring their CIBIL Score for the first time grew 27% year-over-year as of December 2025.

The behaviour curve on the consumer-facing side moved further than any single retail product trend during the year.

Why it matters: Self-monitoring at 183 million consumers is the largest behavioural change visible in CIBIL’s CY 2025 dataset, and the 45% six-month score-improvement rate documented inside that base shows that data transparency translates directly into measurable credit-hygiene gains for the borrower population at scale.

The outcome data is where this gets interesting. Nearly 45% of monitoring consumers improved their credit score within six months of monitoring, and the average CIBIL Score among monitoring consumers stood at 728. That sits firmly inside the “good” band on the published CIBIL scale and well above the threshold most lenders use for prime pricing.

Demographic skew is striking.

Non-metro consumers accounted for roughly 75% of all monitoring consumers as of December 2025, with 28% YoY growth in this segment.
73% of prime-score (731+) consumers reside in non-metro locations.
Gen Z made up 29% of the total monitoring base.
Among self-monitoring Gen Z consumers, gold loan originations rose 61% YoY and two-wheeler loans in semi-urban and rural areas rose 23% YoY.

Women’s engagement is the other storyline in the same release:

Women’s monitoring base grew 38% YoY, compared to 25% YoY growth among men.
Women’s share of monitoring consumers rose to 21%, up from 19% previously.
63% of monitoring women maintain a Prime score (731+), higher than the broader monitoring-base average.

Active CIBIL Score monitoring is now a leading indicator of the unbanked population transitioning into the formal credit system, and the demographic skew suggests the next decade of lender acquisition will run through younger, non-metro, women-led households more than through metro-male wage earners.

How many Indians self-monitor their CIBIL Score?

As of December 2025, 183 million Indians self-monitored their CIBIL Score across age groups, with consumers monitoring their CIBIL Score for the first time growing 27% year-over-year. Within this base, Gen Z accounted for 29% and Millennials plus Gen Z together for 77% of all monitoring consumers, with the average CIBIL Score among monitoring consumers at 728.

TransUnion’s India Segment in the Parent-Company P&L

For the parent TransUnion (NYSE: TRU), India remains a leading International-segment contributor, and the year was one where that revenue line ran in reverse:

TransUnion’s India segment generated $264.2 million in full-year 2025 revenue, down 1.9% on a reported basis but up 2.1% on a constant-currency basis, versus $269.4 million in 2024.
The fourth quarter alone produced $60.4 million in India revenue, down 9% on a reported basis and down 4% on a constant-currency basis versus Q4 2024.

Year	International segment revenue ($ millions)	India revenue ($ millions)
2024 (full year)	958.4	269.4
2025 (full year)	1,011.0	264.2
Q4 2024	245.1	66.6
Q4 2025	255.9	60.4

Source: TransUnion Q4 2025 earnings release (NYSE: TRU), February 12, 2026.

In the same Q4 release, TransUnion described the year as a reset for unsecured lending and credit card originations in India, with management telling investors the company believes it is experiencing a bottoming of unsecured lending and card volumes before a gradual recovery through the next year. The fourth-quarter India revenue was $60.4 million, down 9% reported and down 4% on a constant currency basis.

The parent’s India line item reads as a forward indicator on Indian unsecured credit activity. A 4% constant-currency decline in Q4 alongside a 7% growth in first-time-borrower originations in the same quarter looks contradictory, but it is the credit-card and personal-loan volume pullback that drove the bureau’s revenue line, even as gold-loan and home-loan volumes lifted the overall borrower count.

Commercial Lending Portfolio: ₹67.5 Lakh Crore and Counting

The commercial-bureau side of TransUnion CIBIL is the less-discussed half of the business and a key driver of the next leg of growth.

Metric	December 2025 reading
Total commercial lending portfolio	₹67.5 lakh crore
YoY growth	16%
CAGR since 2020	17%
Commercial delinquency rate (a five-year low)	1.87%
Largest sector by share	Manufacturing (38%)
Top 5 states’ combined portfolio share	~50%
Credit-active businesses (Udyam + self-employed)	~3.6 crore
Udyam-registered enterprises (addressable pool)	~7.7 crore

Source: TransUnion CIBIL MSME Pulse April 2026.

The portfolio stood at ₹67.5 lakh crore as of December 2025, growing 16% year-on-year on a 17% CAGR since 2020.
Asset quality strengthened to a five-year-low delinquency rate of 1.87%, supported by a higher share of low-risk borrowers.
Manufacturing remained the largest sector at 38%, driven by textiles, food processing and engineering.
Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi together accounted for nearly half of the portfolio, a concentration that has been remarkably stable across MSME Pulse editions.

The behaviour shift that matters here is on the demand side, where younger, semi-urban and rural borrowers are entering the credit system through different products than they did three years ago. First-time-borrower (FTB) readings for the December quarter:

The FTB segment grew 7% by originating consumers YoY in the December 2025 quarter.
Personal loans in this cohort grew 20% YoY versus a 3% decline a year earlier.
Consumer durable loans grew 22% YoY, reversing year-earlier declines.
Borrowers below 35 years old increased by 17% YoY in the December 2025 quarter and now constitute 58% of the FTB segment.

Adoption is also visible in BNPL data tracked by adjacent bureaus, which carries similar demographic skew.

How large is the Indian commercial lending portfolio tracked by CIBIL?

The commercial lending portfolio tracked by TransUnion CIBIL stood at ₹67.5 lakh crore as of December 2025, reflecting 16% year-on-year growth and a 17% CAGR since 2020, with asset quality strengthening to a five-year-low delinquency rate of 1.87%, manufacturing the largest sector at 38% of the portfolio, and Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi together accounting for nearly half of total exposure.

Is TransUnion CIBIL regulated by the RBI?

Yes. TransUnion CIBIL operates as a Credit Information Company licensed and regulated by the Reserve Bank of India under the Credit Information Companies (Regulation) Act. Compliance is enforced through periodic supervisory action: on June 26, 2023, the Reserve Bank of India imposed a monetary penalty of ₹26 lakh on TransUnion CIBIL Limited, Mumbai, for non-compliance with certain provisions of the Credit Information Companies (Regulation) Act, 2005. RBI’s subsequent Master Direction on credit information reporting further consolidated the framework around uniform reporting templates, time-bound dispute resolution and a compensation framework for delayed updation of credit information.

How has TransUnion CIBIL’s data shaped lender behaviour?

The bureau’s data feeds the front-end underwriting decisions on every retail and commercial loan application flowing through India’s banks, NBFCs and microfinance institutions. Three behavioural shifts during the year stand out.

First, lenders re-routed origination volume toward secured collateral: gold loans rose to 36% volume share and 39% value share among all retail loan categories in the December 2025 quarter. Second, home loans above Rs 1 crore grew 9% year-over-year during the quarter ending March 2025, compared to a negative growth of -7% YoY for the entire home loan segment during the quarter, indicating a lender preference for high-value, asset-backed underwriting.

Third, on the consumer-monitoring side, nearly 45% of monitoring consumers improved their CIBIL Score within six months of monitoring, closing the feedback loop between data transparency and credit-worthy behaviour.

Conclusion

TransUnion CIBIL enters this year holding the demographic backbone of Indian retail credit, anchored by roughly 600 million consumer files and 32 million business files. The Credit Market Indicator closed CY 2025 at 102 in the December quarter, and the self-monitoring base reached 183 million consumers. The commercial-portfolio expansion to ₹67.5 lakh crore at a five-year-low 1.87% delinquency rate, paired with the early stress signals in micro-LAP and small-ticket housing, frames the next year as one about discipline on the underwriting side rather than volume chase.