RBI's financial inclusion index rises 4.48 pc in FY26

Mumbai: Reserve Bank's FI-Index, which captures the extent of financial inclusion in the country, rose 4.48 per cent during the year ending March 2026, the central bank said on Thursday.

The Reserve Bank of India had constructed a composite Financial Inclusion Index (FI-Index) in consultation with concerned stakeholders, including the government. The annual index was first published in August 2021 for the fiscal year ending March 2021.

"Index for the year ending March 2026 has since been compiled. The value of FI-Index for March 2026 stands at 70.0 vis-a-vis 67.0 in March 2025, with growth witnessed across all sub-indices," the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said.


The improvement in the FI-Index this year is mainly on account of an uptick in usage, reflecting the deepening of financial inclusion, it added.

The FI-Index has been conceptualised as a comprehensive index incorporating details of banking, investments, insurance, postal, as well as the pension sector, in consultation with the government and respective sectoral regulators.

It captures information on various aspects of financial inclusion in a single value ranging between 0 and 100, where 0 represents complete financial exclusion, and 100 indicates full financial inclusion.

The index comprises three broad parameters -- Access (35 per cent), Usage (45 per cent), and Quality (20 per cent), with each of these consisting of various dimensions, which are computed based on a number of indicators.