Millennials in India are increasingly adopting a digital-led financial life, with digital credit and payments becoming the most preferred financial tools to meet their short-term and long-term goals. 

Freo, a full-stack consumer neobank in India, reportedly assessed millions of transactions on its platform for the year 2022 and recorded insights around consumer trends, borrowing decisions and the increasing adoption of digital payments. It concluded that fueled by increased consumption and a growing digitally savvy population, millennials are the largest users of digital financial products.

“Each generation has its own favourite way to spend; however, our survey shows that millennials are truly redefining both the lending and payments categories in India.  Being digital natives, they are always at ease with innovations, are avid users of mobile applications, and prefer getting things done from the comfort of their homes. One of our key observations has been the shift in mindset and growing comfort towards availing digital credit and using digital payments to achieve both short-term and long-term goals. Interestingly, these financial instruments are no longer confined to tier I cities and we are seeing a significant uptake from Tier II & Tier III cities as well,” said Anuj Kacker, co-founder of Freo.

The insights that were gathered by analysing transactions on Freo’s platforms for the year 2021- 2022 suggested that taking loans and credit is not taboo for millennials. They continue to use both small and large ticket credit to achieve their goals as well as meet their daily needs. Moreover, millennials from Tier II and Tier III cities and towns are adopting digital financial products rapidly, with 89 per cent of transactions of digital payments coming from Tier II cities.

The report also suggested that women are increasingly opening up to the idea of availing credit with a 67.8 per cent rise in the total number of female customers from the previous year.