Financial Inclusion Index Rises To 70 In FY26 As Usage Of Formal Financial Services Increases

Greater use of formal financial services helped push India's Financial Inclusion Index (FI-Index) to 70.0 in the financial year ended March 2026, up from 67.0 a year earlier, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday.

The latest score marks a 4.48 per cent increase over the previous year. The RBI attributed the improvement mainly to higher usage of financial services, while the access and quality components of the index also registered growth.

The FI-Index is a composite measure that tracks the extent of financial inclusion across the country. It brings together data from banking, investments, insurance, postal services and the pension sector to provide an overall picture of access to and use of formal financial services.

The central bank noted that all three sub-indices, access, usage and quality, improved during FY26. Among them, the usage parameter accounted for the largest contribution to the increase in the overall score.

Usage Carries the Highest Weight

The FI-Index is calculated using three broad parameters. The usage component has the highest weight at 45 per cent, followed by access at 35 per cent and quality at 20 per cent.

The access parameter relates to the availability of financial services, while the usage parameter captures the extent to which these services are being used. The quality parameter covers aspects related to the delivery of financial services. Together, these three parameters form the basis of the FI-Index.

Each of these parameters consists of various dimensions, which are computed using a number of indicators. These indicators are combined, and the results prepare the base of the overall FI-Index, which captures different aspects of financial inclusion in a single value.

The index is measured on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 denotes complete financial exclusion and 100 represents full financial inclusion.

Broad Measure of Financial Inclusion

The RBI developed the FI-Index in consultation with the government and financial sector regulators to create a single measure covering multiple segments of the financial system. Unlike indicators that focus only on banking, the index also includes information from the insurance, investment, postal and pension sectors.