Suryoday Small Finance Bank on Wednesday said that Credit Line on UPI (CLOU) is increasingly being adopted by prime borrowers rather than by sub-prime customers as a last resort. According to a white paper released by the lender, nearly 90 per cent of customers hold CIBIL scores above 725, while the average drawdown stands at around Rs 7,000 against credit limits of up to Rs 60,000.
“This directly contradicts the assumption that embedded, app-based credit is primarily a tool for the credit-starved. Instead, the data suggests that creditworthy, financially active consumers are choosing CLOU because of its convenience, not its accessibility as a last resort. The product is being adopted on its merits as a payment-linked credit instrument, not as a fallback,” the report said.
Suryoday SFB launched its Credit on UPI product in August 2025 in partnership with Paytm. As of the reporting period, the lender has pre-qualified nearly 1.1 million customers and sanctioned credit lines to 530,000 customers. Total sanctioned limits stand at more than Rs 362 crore, while utilised limits exceed Rs 102 crore.
More than 97 per cent of these CLOU customers are new-to-bank (NTB), the report said.
Additionally, the report highlighted that rather than drawing down large lump sums, consumers are using the facility for “sachet-sized” transactions. While roughly 50 per cent of the sanctioned accounts are active, overall utilisation against total sanctioned limits stands at about 28 per cent.
Geographically, the traction is highly concentrated in regions where digital payment habits and merchant UPI ecosystems are already deeply entrenched. North and West India lead adoption. Specifically, Jaipur has emerged as the single-largest city contributor, accounting for nearly 14 per cent of the portfolio, followed closely by the Delhi-NCR region, which contributes more than 20 per cent. Meaningful momentum is also being observed across western hubs such as Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat and Pune, while Bengaluru leads adoption in South India.