Loans against shares are secured loans where borrowers pledge listed equities or bonds as collateral.
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phakphum patjangkata
Even as markets have remained volatile for much of FY26, the loans against shares and bonds have continued to rise.
According to RBI data, outstanding gross bank credit against shares and bonds stood at ₹10,264 crore as of January 2026, up 5.1 per cent from the ₹9,766 crore at the same time last year. It was at ₹7,677 crore in January 2023 and ₹7,340 crore in January 2024.
Loans against shares are secured loans where borrowers pledge listed equities or bonds as collateral. Banks and NBFCs offer these at defined loan-to-value (LTV) ratios with interest rates linked to tenure and risk.
The figure, after steady increases through the last few months, is now at an nine-month high in January 2026.
However, banks hold a small fraction of the total credit against shares as NBFCs have a larger play in this segment. For instance, Bajaj Finance’s total loan against securities AUM as of December 2025 stood at ₹3,562 crores, up 26 per cent from the same period last year.
Vivek Iyer, Partner and Financial Services Risk Leader, Grant Thornton Bharat, said that during softer market conditions borrowers use existing portfolios to fuel immediate-term liquidity leading to increased lending against shares.
“When the markets are weak, investors are typically unwilling to liquidate their holdings at lower valuations. They tend to want to hold on to the securities for a longer time in the hope that the market will recover,” he said. In such a scenario, loans against shares provide an interim source of liquidity, allowing individuals to raise funds while continuing to stay invested in the market, he added.
Iyer mentioned that borrowers are likely to continue holding on to these loans even if stock prices remain under pressure. “Given the uncertain external economic scenario, borrowers will hold on to the loans in the hope that interest rates will be reduced, bringing down their overall credit burden,” he said.
Generation gap
Beyond cyclical market conditions, there are also structural factors. Iyer noted that the younger demographic tends to have a lower base of physical collateral such as property but a higher exposure to equities and hence securities are becoming an alternative collateral option to borrow.
Certain policy tailwinds might also have spurred loan activity. In October of last year, the Central bank had removed the regulatory ceiling on such loans from ₹20 lakh to ₹1 crore. LTV for loans against shares was also proposed to increase to 60 per cent from the previous 50 per cent.
RBI data shows other personal loans have also seen growth in the last 12 months. Loans against fixed deposits went up 13 per cent year-on-year at ₹1,54,360 crore, while loans against gold jewellery went up 1.2x times to ₹4,00,517 crore. Overall personal loans went up by 15 per cent to ₹67, 23,042 crore.
Published on April 5, 2026
