India's top MFIs have committed to joining credit bureaus to ensure that the poor are not overburdened with too many micro-loans. Some of the major MF players in India have joined the Microfinance Institutions Network. The member organisations would register the details of their customers to the Credit Information Bureau (India) Ltd. and High Mark Credit Information Services Pvt. Ltd.

Owing to the increasing competition among various MFIs, there has been increased incidence of multiple lending to the same set of customers, which has a high risk of leading to over indebtedness. In some regions, the borrowers are also defied the system by taking out many loans at a time. While at present at an average less than 10% of the customers are borrowing from more than one micro-lender. Still, the MFIs have decided to join credit bureaus to avoid any bigger crisis.

It would take around a year to register about 20 million borrowers that have loans through member organisations. Once all borrowers are registered, it would be easier to ensure none of them are taking on more debt than they can handle. The Microfinance Institutions Network also announced plans to build a self-regulatory code of conduct for its members to ensure the poor aren't being exploited or overexposed to debt. One of the basic guidelines would be that no borrower should have loans to more than three lenders or have total loans outstanding of more than Rs. 50,000 rupees.