New Delhi, Aug 23 (IANS): The business of Indian non-banking finance companies-microfinance institutions (NBFCs-MFIs) has grown 26 per cent during the first quarter of the current fiscal over the same quarter of last year, according to a latest industry report.

"NBFCs-MFIs have registered 26 per cent growth year-on-year in the first quarter (Q1) of financial year (FY) 2017-18," the Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) -- the self-regulatory body of the Reserve Bank-regulated NBFCs-MFIs -- said in a statement here on Tuesday, releasing its latest Micrometer report on the industry.

"The size of the microfinance industry stood at Rs 106,823 crore in Q1 FY18. NBFC-MFIs' share in the micro credit business stands at 31 per cent with loan portfolio of Rs 32,820 crore," it said.

Banks have become the largest provider of micro-credit with a loan outstanding of Rs 38,486 crore and 36 per cent share, it added.

"There has been a decline of debt funding by 20 per cent year-on-year," the report said.

"The increase in loan amount disbursed registered 21 per cent growth year-on-year," MFIN Chief Executive Ratna Vishwanathan said.

The report, however, said that due to delay in repayments after the demonetisation of high-value currency last November, there was a sudden deterioration in portfolio quality.

"Portfolio at risk numbers have also seen improvement which shows that NBFC-MFI business is slowly returning to normalcy. However, we will have to wait for another few quarters as we expect it to come back to pre-demonetisation level of under one per cent by that period," Vishwanathan said.

NBFC-MFIs witnessed a growth of 19 per cent in number of clients, which stands at 2.08 crore towards the end of the first quarter of this fiscal, MFIN said.

Over half the total disbursements during the quarter in question came from five states -- Karnataka, Bihar, Maharashtra, Odisha and West Bengal, it added.