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Bajaj Finance reports rising overdue gold loans in July

Bajaj Finance reported that the share of its gold loans overdue by more than 30 days increased during the July-September quarter. The lender also said its overall stage 2 and stage 3 assets rose 15 basis points from the previous quarter.

AI-assisted synthesis · Based on 3 independent reports from 4 outlets · Article text read from 1 of 3 reportsHow it's made

View timeline · 5 entries
4 outletsLatest reporting 3 min read
Coverage: Center OnlyL 0 · C 3 · R 0 · 1 unrated

What happened

Key facts

  • Bajaj Finance and Piramal Finance are named in connection with early signs of stress in gold loans (per urbanacres.in, business-standard.com).
  • Bajaj Finance has a gold-loan portfolio worth Rs 240 billion (per urbanacres.in).
  • Bajaj Finance reported that the proportion of its gold loans overdue by more than 30 days rose during the July-September quarter (per urbanacres.in).
  • Bajaj Finance said its combined stage 2 and stage 3 assets rose 15 basis points from the previous quarter (per urbanacres.in).
  • During a call with analysts, Bajaj Finance said nearly 35% of its customers had a gold loan from another institution (per urbanacres.in).
  • Jairam Sridharan said that in 2025-26, gold-loan disbursements of Rs 4.7 trillion across the industry went to customers who had other loans overdue by more than 90 days (per urbanacres.in).
  • Bank loans against gold rose 83% year-on-year to Rs 5.6 lakh crore in August 2026, according to Reserve Bank of India data cited by the report (per urbanacres.in).
  • The report says Bajaj Finance has stopped offering the gold-loan product (per urbanacres.in, business-standard.com).

The brief

Bajaj Finance reported that a larger proportion of its gold loans were more than 30 days overdue during the July-September quarter, an early sign of repayment stress in a segment where lending has expanded quickly. Its combined stage 2 and stage 3 assets rose 15 basis points from the preceding quarter, the company said.

Urbanacres.in reported the figures, while headlines from Moneycontrol and Reuters also describe early stress in loans against gold at Indian non-bank lenders; Business Standard’s headline names Bajaj Finance and Piramal Finance. Bajaj Finance’s gold-loan portfolio is worth Rs 240 billion.

The company said on a call with analysts that nearly 35% of its customers also had a gold loan from another institution. That figure describes customers’ borrowing across institutions, while the reported rise in overdue gold loans and the increase in stage 2 and stage 3 assets are separate portfolio measures.

Jairam Sridharan, Bajaj Finance’s chief executive, said that during 2025-26, about Rs 4.7 trillion in gold-loan disbursements across the industry went to customers who had other loans more than 90 days overdue.

His statement concerns borrowers’ other overdue debts and industry-wide disbursements; it is distinct from the company’s reported change in overdue gold loans during the July-September quarter. The company said its overall stage 2 and stage 3 assets—described in the report as reflecting loans overdue by more than 30 days—increased 15 basis points quarter-on-quarter.

The company also reported a rise in the proportion of its own gold loans overdue beyond that threshold. The account does not give a separate percentage or amount for the gold-loan increase, so the two measures should not be treated as interchangeable. Urbanacres.in says Bajaj Finance has stopped offering that product.

It does not explain the decision, and the available account does not give a date for when the offering stopped. The company’s statements on its portfolio, customer borrowing and overdue assets provide the reported details of its position.

The broader lending backdrop in the report is a sharp increase in bank lending against gold: Reserve Bank of India data cited by Urbanacres.in put such loans at Rs 5.6 lakh crore in August 2026, up 83% year-on-year. That figure concerns bank loans against gold, not Bajaj Finance’s portfolio alone.

The headlines identify early stress at non-bank lenders, but the detailed figures reported here concern Bajaj Finance.

Why it matters

  • Bajaj Finance’s borrowers face the concrete risk of overdue gold-loan obligations: the company reported an increased share overdue by more than 30 days, though it did not give a product-specific percentage or amount.
  • The lender’s reported Rs 240 billion gold-loan portfolio makes its overdue-loan trend relevant to the company’s own exposure.
  • The company said nearly 35% of its customers had gold loans from another institution, while Jairam Sridharan said Rs 4.7 trillion in industry gold-loan disbursements in 2025-26 went to customers with other debts overdue by more than 90 days.

What to watch next

  • Whether Bajaj Finance reports further changes in the share of its gold loans overdue by more than 30 days.
  • Whether Bajaj Finance gives additional figures for its gold-loan portfolio or its stage 2 and stage 3 assets.
  • Whether Piramal Finance reports specific gold-loan stress figures; it is named in the Business Standard headline, but the detailed account here does not give its figures.

How it's being covered

Coverage analysisShow details
4 source articles · 4 unique outlets · 3 distinct reports
Outlet political mix: Center Only· 3 Center · 1 unrated
Where the outlets are based: Asia 75% · Global 25%
Outlet political mix
Center Only
Left
Center
Right
0 outlets
3 outlets
0 outlets
The marker shows coverage balance: each unique outlet counts once. 1 unrated outlet is not included.
Geography
Where the outlets covering this story are based.
4 unique outletsDominant coverage: Asia
Coverage imbalance
  • Coverage is currently concentrated among Center-rated outlets (3 of 3 rated sources); comparatively few Left or Right-rated outlets have published on the event.
  • Coverage is currently concentrated among outlets based in Asia (3 of 4 geographically-identified sources).
How we measure coverage

One source is from a wire service (AP, Reuters, AFP or Bloomberg), whose reporting other outlets often republish.

How outlets' accounts compare

Updat3 does not yet have enough full reports to compare how outlets framed this story.

Timeline

Developments from this story's sources, dated background we compiled and fact-checked, and our earlier coverage. Each row says which.
  1. The Reserve Bank of India capped loan-to-value ratios for gold-loan NBFCs at 60%.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  2. Indian Accounting Standards, including Ind AS 109, became applicable to NBFCs.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  3. The Reserve Bank of India temporarily allowed banks to lend up to 90% of the value of pledged gold.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  4. Those limits sit within the RBI’s wider regulation of non-bank lenders, including the scale-based regulatory framework it introduced in 2021.
    Background · from our historical context
  5. Bank loans against gold rose 83% year-on-year to Rs 5.6 lakh crore in August 2026, according to Reserve Bank of India data cited by the report.
    Reported in this story's sourcesSource:urbanacres.in

How we got here

India’s gold-loan market operates under Reserve Bank of India limits on how much lenders may advance against pledged jewellery. In 2012, the RBI capped gold-loan NBFCs’ loan-to-value ratio at 60%; in 2016, it raised the ceiling to 75%. Those limits sit within the RBI’s wider regulation of non-bank lenders, including the scale-based regulatory framework it introduced in 2021.

For lenders reporting under Indian Accounting Standards, Ind AS 109, applied by NBFCs from 2018, classifies credit exposures into stages based on changes in credit risk; overdue payments can therefore affect reported asset quality.

Original sources

4 articles from 4 outlets

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