Content authored by practitioners with experience at Amazon India, Intuit QuickBooks, and the Tata Group. Meet the team →
A credit analyst must find every existing loan repayment in an applicant's bank statement, including ones not declared on the application.
Look for debits that repeat at the same amount, around the same date, to the same beneficiary, especially NACH, ECS or UPI AutoPay debits to banks, NBFCs or card issuers. Confirm each against the bureau report and lender policy.
Six to twelve months of statements for every account the applicant uses, the bureau report, and the lender's list of what counts as a fixed obligation.
A monthly total of fixed obligations, a list of declared and undeclared debts, and the figure that goes into the FOIR calculation.
An existing obligation is a recurring debit that repays borrowed money, or a fixed commitment the lender’s policy treats like one. The usual list is loan EMIs, credit card dues, BNPL instalments and loan-app repayments. Some lenders, for some products, also count chit-fund or insurance instalments and rent. The total goes into FOIR, so missing one makes the borrower look safer than they are.
Which debits look like EMIs?
A loan EMI usually has four features:
- Same amount each month, to the rupee.
- Same date, give or take a day or two for holidays.
- Same beneficiary, a bank, NBFC or housing finance company.
- An auto-debit narration, such as NACH, ECS, ACH or UPI AutoPay, often with the lender’s name or a mandate reference.
Card payments look different: a transfer or bill payment to a card issuer, with an amount that changes every month.
What counts and what does not?
| Debit type | Usually counted? | How to confirm |
|---|---|---|
| NACH debit to a finance company | Yes | Same amount monthly; check the bureau for the loan |
| Credit card payment | Yes, as a set percent of outstanding or minimum due | Match to card account in the bureau report |
| BNPL or loan-app instalment | Yes | Regular small UPI or NACH debits to a lending platform |
| SIP to a mutual fund | Usually no | Savings, can be stopped |
| Rent | Depends on lender and product | Regular transfer to a person, often with “rent” in narration |
| Chit-fund instalment | Some lenders count it | Regular debit to a registered chit company |
| School fees | Usually no | Quarterly or yearly, to a school |
| Insurance premium | Some lenders count it | Debit to an insurer, monthly or yearly |
Worked example: adding up obligations
An applicant’s statement for June shows these recurring debits:
| Date | Narration (simplified) | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 2 June | NACH debit, housing finance company | ₹14,200 |
| 5 June | NACH debit, NBFC two-wheeler loan | ₹6,750 |
| 7 June | ECS debit, consumer-durable finance | ₹3,100 |
| 18 June | Card payment to issuer | ₹4,500 |
Total = ₹14,200 + ₹6,750 + ₹3,100 + ₹4,500 = ₹28,550 a month.
The application form listed only the home loan (₹14,200). The analyst has found ₹14,350 of extra monthly obligations, ₹28,550 less ₹14,200. If the applicant’s take-home income is ₹80,000, FOIR is ₹28,550 ÷ ₹80,000 × 100 = 35.7 percent, not the 17.8 percent the form implied.
What about debts that never touch this account?
A statement shows only one account. Debts can hide in three ways:
- EMIs paid from a second bank account.
- Loans repaid in cash, common with local lenders.
- Informal borrowings from family or private lenders.
Analysts fill the gap by asking for statements of all active accounts, reading the credit bureau report, and watching for transfers out to an account in the borrower’s own name just before an EMI date.
What to read next
To see how hidden obligations add up to over-borrowing, read over-leverage detection from bank statements. For how lenders track EMI debits on their side, see NACH EMI reconciliation for NBFCs. For the ratio these totals feed, see what is FOIR.
TransactIQ reads bank statements and returns recurring obligations among its 40+ engineered credit signals. See the bank statement analyzer.