Five-Star Social Loan Improving Access to Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises Finance for Lower-Income Women Borrowers Project (ADB-58533-001)

Countries
  • India
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • Asian Development Bank (ADB)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
C
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Sep 19, 2025
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
Five-Star Business Finance Limited
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Finance
  • Industry and Trade
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 100.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 100.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Media Documents
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ ADB website

Updated in EWS Jan 31, 2026

Disclosed by Bank Sep 19, 2025

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to the Bank’s website, the project entails Asian Development Bank (ADB) providing long-term debt financing to FBFL to support the financing of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) business loans to eligible women borrowers in the lower-income group under a women-inclusive social loan framework.

The project will support onlending for MSME business loans to eligible women borrowers in the lower-income group under a women-inclusive social loan framework. FBFL will disburse an additional $200 million from its own resources to the same segment under the social loan framework over a four-year period from the disbursement date of the first tranche. ADB will provide support to FBFL in obtaining the necessary external verification of the social loan framework through existing technical assistance.

Early Warning System Project Analysis
For a project with severe or irreversible impacts to local community and natural resources, the Early Warning System Team may conduct a thorough analysis regarding its potential impacts to human and environmental rights.

The proposed project with FBFL will support MSME business loans to women in the lower-income group, with loans up to $11,000. Given the loan size range and the borrowers' engagement in the services sector, the project is expected to have minimal to no environmental impacts and no physical or economic displacement is expected.

Given the nature of the loan activities, these will not result to impacts to distinct and vulnerable Indigenous Peoples.

FBFL committed to exclude loans Categorized as A or B for environment, involuntary resettlement and Indigenous Peoples.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

The financing amount is $100,000,000, which will be financed on a loan basis by ADB’s ordinary capital resources.

Financial Intermediary
A financial intermediary is a bank or financial institution that receives funds from a development bank. A financial intermediary then lends these funds to their clients (private actors) in the form of loans, bonds, guarantees and equity shares. Financial intermediaries include insurance, pension and equity funds. The direct financial relationship is between the development bank and the financial intermediary.
Private Actors Description
A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

Five Star is a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) focused on serving the underserved micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) segment in India, by providing small ticket secured financial solutions to small business owners (micro-entrepreneurs) and self-employed individuals who are largely cut-off from the formal lending ecosystem. As of December 2023, the Company held assets under management (AUM) of approximately US$1.1 billion. It has a distribution network of 480 branches across 10 states and union territories through which it reaches these underserved customers.

The Company is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange and has a market capitalization of approximately US$ 2.4 billion as of April 23, 2024. As of December 31, 2023, on a fully diluted basis, 18.29 percent of the Company’s shares were held by the individual promoters & promoter group, and 81.71 percent of Company’s shares were held by others (foreign institutional investors, domestic institutions public shareholders and others).


Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

No contacts available at the time of disclosure.

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit an information request for project information at: https://www.adb.org/forms/request-information-form

ADB has a two-stage appeals process for requesters who believe that ADB has denied their request for information in violation of its Access to Information Policy. You can learn more about filing an appeal at: https://www.adb.org/site/disclosure/appeals

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF ADB

The Accountability Mechanism is an independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an Asian Development Bank-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the Accountability Mechanism, they may investigate to assess whether the Asian Development Bank is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. You can learn more about the Accountability Mechanism and how to file a complaint at: http://www.adb.org/site/accountability-mechanism/main.

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