Digital Credit and Inclusion Index: Borrowers from Tier II cities are driving India’s digital credit story, finds report

When it comes to India's digital credit story, it is the tier 2 cities that are leading the charge, according to findings from the Digital Credit & Inclusion Index (DCII) 2026, conducted by the Pahlé India Foundation and Amazon Pay.

Tier-2 cities lead digital credit and inclusion in the country, with an average score of 58.64, ahead of Tier-1 and Tier-3 cities, the report added.

DCII surveyed over 5,100 respondents across 100 cities in 20 states to examine who accesses digital credit, how easily and frequently they use it, why they borrow, whether they trust it, and whether its use contributes to stronger financial outcomes. This goes “beyond existing benchmarks that largely track payment adoption or aggregate loan volumes”, as per the official release.

The study found that India has a national DCII score of 55.85 out of 100, placing the country in the “Emerging and Served” category (51–75) and reflecting a maturing ecosystem where payment infrastructure and digital loan awareness are well established.

“This shows that India has made significant progress in expanding access to digital credit. The next opportunity is to deepen trust and adoption, help consumers borrow more purposefully, build confidence in digital credit on par with digital payments, and translate access into measurable financial resilience and savings outcome,” the report noted.

According to Vikas Bansal, CEO of Amazon Pay India the finding that Tier-2 cities lead digital credit inclusion signals where the next wave of growth could emerge.

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Jocelyn Fernandes is a journalist and editor with nearly 13 years of experience covering the business, corporate, economy and markets beats in news.<br> As chief content producer for around three years at Livemint (Hindustan Times), Jocelyn publishes breaking stories, explainers, features and live blogs on a range of business and economy topics, including the Budget, corporate developments, stock markets, income tax, money and personal finance, cryptocurrency, government policy, impact of US tariffs, international developments and more.<br> Jocelyn's writing philosophy is focused on delivering news in an accurate and accessible format for readers. She thus focuses her news coverage on explainers and FAQs in order to breakdown business, corporate, economic, and policy topics that are of importance to everyday readers.<br> She holds a Bachelors in Mass Media (BMM) and Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) in Journalism and Communication and has previously written for online business and markets news site Moneycontrol (Network18), Business-to-business (B2B) trade publications — the industry magazines Power Today and Solar Today (ASAPP Media), and the national news agency United News of India (UNI).<br> Outside of work, Jocelyn keeps up-to-date with local and international news, enjoys reading fiction books, novels and short stories, and enjoys movies, travelling and art.