CreditAccess Grameen's Q4 PAT soars 619% YoY to ₹340 Cr as crisis cycle turns

CreditAccess Grameen Limited (CAGL) delivered a blockbuster fourth quarter on Thursday, posting a profit after tax of ₹339.5 crore for Q4 FY26 — a staggering 619% jump year-on-year — as lower credit costs, rising net interest margins, and a sharp recovery in disbursements signalled that the worst of the MFI industry's credit cycle stress is firmly behind it.

The Bengaluru-headquartered microfinance lender, which serves over 44 lakh active borrowers across 16 states, saw its AUM climb 14% year-on-year to ₹29,590 crore as of March 2026, aided by a massive disbursement surge of 44.1% sequentially to ₹8,313 crore in the quarter — the strongest print in over six quarters.

The turnaround in profitability was powered by a combination of rising portfolio yield — up to 21.2% in Q4 FY26 from 20.4% a year ago — and a meaningful decline in cost of borrowings to 9.2% from 9.8%, expanding the interest spread to 12% and NIM to 14.2%, its highest level in recent quarters. Pre-provision operating profit hit ₹780 crore, up 23.1% year-on-year, reflecting robust operating leverage as AUM scaled.

Asset quality showed sustained recovery. Gross NPA fell to 3.17% from 4.76% in Q4 FY25, while PAR 90+ declined to 2.28%. Monthly PAR 15+ accretion, a key leading indicator, fell to just 0.07% of AUM in March 2026 from a peak of 0.95% in December 2024 — a near-complete normalisation. The company also evolved its ECL model, extending the historical window from 36 months to 120 months and incorporating macroeconomic scenario weighting, which resulted in an incremental provisioning of ₹39 crore. Total ECL provisioning stood at 3.81%.