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Now Aditya Birla Capital has also stepped forward in the rapidly booming gold loan market in India. The company on Thursday made a big announcement of officially starting the gold loan business. The company has described this as a very important part of its strategy to expand its secured lending portfolio.

Under this new strategy, the company is working on a plan to open about 1,000 gold loan branches across the country in the next 3 years. As soon as this big announcement came out, there was a huge rise in the shares of the company in the stock market also. At 12:42 pm on Thursday, Aditya Birla Capital shares were trading at Rs 409.35 with a gain of 3.37% on BSE.

Branches will be expanded in a phased manner

According to the information given by the company, the gold loan business will be expanded in a phased manner. Under the first phase, a target has been set to open about 300 dedicated gold loan branches across the country by March 2027. These new branches will be opened especially in those selected markets of the country, where the demand for loans against gold is expected to be high.

After this, there is a big plan to further expand this network and take the total number of branches to around 1,000 in the next 2 years. The company clearly believes that this new gold loan business is a very natural extension of its existing retail and MSME lending business.

Company strategy and focus on customers

Rakesh Singh, Executive Director and CEO of NBFC business of Aditya Birla Capital, said that the gold loan market in India is witnessing a strong and sustainable growth. The company's entry into this sector is part of its secured lending strategy. The company says that it is building its new business on a strong foundation from the ground up. In this, maximum attention will be given to governance, risk management, better operational systems and customer-centric services.

The company will make best use of its vast distribution network and modern digital capabilities to provide easy gold loans to the customers. Its aim is not to be limited to only the old customers, but also to attract new customers from urban and semi-urban areas. For this, along with physical branches, digital platforms will also be integrated. Customers will be able to easily raise money as per their need for children's education, business, working capital or other immediate daily expenses by mortgaging the gold kept in their house.

Increasing interest of big corporate groups in gold loans

The interest of many big corporate houses in this rapidly growing market of gold loans has increased significantly in recent months. Before Aditya Birla, big groups like Tata Capital and Godrej Capital have also entered this sector. Tata Capital had announced plans to buy 88.6% stake in Yogloans.

On the other hand, Godrej Capital had purchased the gold loan business of Kanakadurga Finance through its subsidiary Godrej Finance. Apart from this, L&T Finance had acquired the gold loan business of Paul Merchants Finance, while other big companies like Incred Finance and Bain Capital have also done several deals in this sector.

Why is the demand for gold loan increasing?

The main reason for the growing interest of the players in gold loan business is its completely secured nature and the always strong demand for gold in India. Due to the huge increase in gold prices in recent times, the value of gold held by people has increased significantly, due to which the ability to get more loans against it has also increased. According to available official data, the total outstanding loans against gold jewelery stood at ₹3.29 lakh crore by the end of May 2026, which is about 69.9% more than ₹1.94 lakh crore just a year ago.

In today's time, small businessmen, shopkeepers, self-employed people and employed families are also preferring to meet their temporary needs by mortgaging the gold in a secured bank or NBFC instead of selling it. Be it business need for working capital, children's education expenses or any sudden medical emergency – gold loan is emerging as a very easy option in every situation. According to the report of Experian India, the dominance of gold loan in the retail loan portfolio of companies has increased significantly. While the share of gold loans in retail credit sourcing was only 18% in the financial year 2023 (FY23), it has increased rapidly to 41% in the financial year 2026 (FY26). In such a situation, with the entry of Aditya Birla Capital, the competition in this entire market is going to become more interesting.