12 Oct 2026 · weekly

SROTrac Weekly #6: Sa-Dhan's FY26 scorecard; the insurance councils break their silence; UFF's reply window closes with no reply

Week to 12 October 2026

TL;DR

Sa-Dhan published its annual scorecard. The Bharat Microfinance Report 2026, released 8 October, puts FY26's loan book at ₹3.34 lakh crore (down 11% year-on-year) and accounts down 21% to 10.40 crore — but a 4% sequential rise in the March quarter is the first growth signal after two years of stress. Legacy pain deepened: loans 180+ days overdue hit 17.04% of the book. [1]
The insurance councils finally showed up. After two weeks of public silence on IRDAI's distribution reset, the Life Insurance Council is working a formal response with credit-life and annuities as its flashpoints — and has itself suggested persistency-linked commissions; the General Insurance Council pleads thin margins. IRDAI member Girija Subramanian put dates on record: a possible start of January or April 2027, comments closing 25 October. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Account Aggregators go interoperable by 31 December 2026, per RBI's 7 October policy statement — and Sahamati, the RBI-recognised SRO for the AA ecosystem, welcomed it within two days. [6] [7]
The UFF–BSFG silence held. Our right-of-reply window closed end of day IST on 11 October with no response from either the SRO-FT or the departed member. Twelve days after the exit appeared on the member wall, no one has said why. [8] [9]

Roster & register changes

No membership movement anywhere on the register this week. The totals hold at 18 SROs / 4 regulators / 773 listed memberships / 79 orgs in 2+ SROs / 2 SRO-FTs. The only change in any member file was cosmetic: LendingPlate shifted position on UFF's published member wall, with the count staying at 120. [8]

Right-of-reply: closed, unanswered. On 8 October we wrote to BSFG and to UFF's secretariat asking three plain questions — was BSFG's exit a resignation, a lapse, or a removal, and why; what UFF's membership criteria require of entities that are not themselves RBI-regulated; and whether UFF has any policy of disclosing membership exits. Both were given until end of day IST, 11 October, with a commitment to reflect any response in full. As of this morning, both threads hold only our own messages. [9] The offer stands. What remains unchanged and public: BSFG Finance's row sat on UFF's member wall through our 30 September capture and was gone by 1 October; UFF's About page reads "At present UFF has 120 members." [8] [10] Weekly #5 has the full chronology. [11]

We will not speculate on which of the three it was — the record shows only that the row disappeared. But the consumer point from last week survives contact with another quiet week: visibility without a stated reason is half the protection. Borrowers relying on an SRO badge deserve to know when a member leaves, and on what terms.

The SROs at work

Sa-Dhan's report is the week's most substantial SRO output. Released at Sa-Dhan's 21st National Conference in New Delhi (8–9 October, where the SRO also gave SKDRDP its Elaben Memorial Award as best women-friendly financial institution), the [13] Bharat Microfinance Report 2026 is a full-body scan of the sector the SRO supervises. The numbers: loan book ₹3.34 lakh crore (−11% year-on-year); accounts down 21% to 10.40 crore from 13.18 crore; the sharpest contractions in the biggest markets — Karnataka −28%, West Bengal −24%, Tamil Nadu −23%, Bihar −22%, Uttar Pradesh −17%. [1] Current-book quality improved sharply (portfolio at risk 30–179 days fell to 2.34% from 6.63%), but legacy stress worsened — loans overdue 180+ days rose to 17.04% from 10.67%. The report credits the third set of industry-SRO guardrails issued in April 2026 — a borrower cap of three microfinance lenders and a ₹2 lakh household exposure ceiling — for a measurable change in behaviour: 92.6% of active borrowers now borrow from two or fewer lenders, and the share with five or more collapsed to 0.1% from 1.6%. [1] Sa-Dhan expects about 15% credit growth in FY27. [12] The report's own caution list is worth reading too: rising inflation, a monsoon 12% below the long-period average through 12 August with the worst shortfalls in high-borrower-density eastern districts, and an expired credit-guarantee facility. [1]

The consumer read cuts both ways. The shrinkage is credit rationing — necessary after two years of over-lending, and the guardrails are working on the multiple-borrowing data. But an 11% smaller book and 21% fewer accounts also means lakhs of households lost access to formal micro-credit in a single year. Whether that is protection or exclusion depends on which side of the three-lender cap a borrower landed. That trade-off — and who bears it — is exactly what an SRO's annual report should keep measuring, and we will hold Sa-Dhan's next edition to it.

IRDAI's reset gets a timeline — and its statutory SROs start negotiating. IRDAI member (distribution) Girija Subramanian said the reforms could take effect from January 2027 — 1 January or 1 April are the dates under consideration — with expense-limit reductions phased over five years and a first interim milestone at end-March 2029. Comments on the consultation close 25 October; draft regulations will then face a second round of public feedback. [2] Chairman Ajay Seth, in an interview this week, disclosed the statistic driving the exercise — only 48% of life policies stay renewed beyond five years — and argued the caps stop large insurers from outbidding each other for distributors, while new companies keep first-five-years flexibility. [5] The Times of India interview also records the General Insurance Council's line: thin non-life margins. [5] And in a Moneycontrol report on the Life Insurance Council's internal work, Seth ruled out a glide path on the commission caps themselves (the five-year phase-in applies to expense limits), said he is open to blended commissions, and noted that the Life Insurance Council has itself suggested persistency-linked commissions. [4] Separately, the council is working through credit-life and annuity concerns with member insurers ahead of its formal response. [3]

Weeks #4 and #5 asked, twice, where the councils were while their industry's economics were being reset. Now we know: at the table. That is how it should work — but the test is whether either council's submission is published when filed, and whether it argues for policyholders or for the commission pipeline. We will check.

Account Aggregators get interoperability — a reset for Sahamati's ecosystem. RBI's 7 October policy statement committed to interoperability among NBFC Account Aggregators by 31 December 2026, letting a customer aggregate financial information across the whole network through a single AA of their choice. [6] Sahamati — the RBI-recognised SRO for the AA ecosystem since 5 June 2026 — publicly welcomed the move within two days, framing it as customer choice and simpler data-sharing journeys. [7] Watch item: interoperability ends the lock-in that made each AA a walled garden, and it will change the economics of being an AA. The SRO's next job is making the consent experience uniform across the network — not just bigger.

Everyone else was quiet. No announcements found in the week's coverage from FACE, UFF (beyond the wall itself), FIMMDA, FEDAI, MFIN, FIDC, SRPA, BASL, AIBI, AMFI or ANMI. Our daily drift check shows all 23 tracked official accounts still linked from their SROs' own sites. [14]

What it means for consumers

The three-lender cap is now the binding constraint in microfinance. If a fourth microloan was denied, that is the guardrail working as designed — not a personal judgement. If you are servicing five or more, you are in the 0.1% the system is pushing out; talk to your lender about consolidation before collections do it for you. [1]
Insurance distribution economics are on a track for a January 2027 start, with two weeks left to comment. If commissions and acquisition costs loaded into your premium matter to you, the window closes 25 October. Seth's own number — 48% five-year persistency — is the strongest argument for paying distributors to keep policies alive rather than to hunt the next customer. [2] [5]
Your financial data will follow you between Account Aggregators by year-end. Switching AAs stops meaning starting over; that is real leverage for consumers in a consent-based data market. [6]
Twelve days, no explanation. UFF's silent exit is now the register's standing test case for a disclosure norm: SROs that police conduct should say when membership ends and why. Until one does, every SRO badge on every lender's website carries an asterisk. [8] [9]

SROTrac Weekly #6: Sa-Dhan's FY26 scorecard; the insurance councils break their silence; UFF's reply window closes with no reply

TL;DR

Roster & register changes

The SROs at work

What it means for consumers

Sources