Now boarding: Is India on the cusp of a tectonic shift in retail credit?

First-time customers are emerging as a huge catchment area for retail finance, but dangers lurk in the nooks and crannies

Is India on the cusp of a tectonic shift in retail credit, which the financial services industry can tap into for decades to come? According to a recent study by TransUnion, a Chicago-based consumer credit reporting agency, 31 million Indian consumers debuted with credit products through the first nine months of 2022, over and above the 35 million that did so in 2021. Millennials (those born between 1980 and 1994) accounted for 42 per cent of fresh credits, and Gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2012, according to the Pew Research Centre and the US Census of 2022) came