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Context is everything.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
The numbers are more alarming than the words. When the CEOs of two of India’s largest shadow banks warn that the gold lending party could be heading for trouble, it is worth paying attention. Both Piramal Finance and Bajaj Finance raised the alarm during their September 2026 quarterly earnings calls.
First, Jairam Sridharan, CEO of Piramal Finance:
“This [gold loan] is an important area of emerging risk in our mind, which is the rapidly increasing presence of gold loans on customer files. Two years ago, on our portfolio depending on the product, 20-25% of customers had an active gold …
Falling revenue, mounting losses and stalled business lines make it increasingly hard for the payments bank to fund a costly lending buildout.
The acquisition of IDBI Bank puts his Fairfax smack dab in the middle of the RBI’s rules on bank ownership. It must now decide whether to sell CSB Bank or merge the two lenders, neither of which will be easy.
Lenders stand to gain a lot more than borrowers in the current challenging market environment
