A Quarter of All Lending in Sri Lanka Now Rides on Your Car or Gold — Too Risky?

Central Bank data out this month shows vehicle-backed and gold-backed loans together made up almost 25% of all bank and finance company credit by mid-2026, up from under 20% two years ago. Finance companies' vehicle loans alone grew over 46% in a year, and loans already showing repayment stress on both the vehicle and gold books jumped sharply. Regulators responded by cutting how much you can borrow against a new vehicle and tightening gold loan limits. One side says this is just sound banking: a car or your wife's bangles are easy to value and repossess, so lending against them is safer than unsecured credit, and tighter limits just protect borrowers from overextending. The other side says when a quarter of the whole system rides on two asset classes that can both lose value at the same time, a shock to resale prices or gold prices stops being your problem and becomes everyone's. Have you taken a vehicle-backed or gold loan recently? Did the new lower limits actually change what you could borrow, or did you just go to a different lender? මෙච්චර ලෝන් එකට වාහන සහ රත්‍රන් උඩ තියෙනකොට, ඒවායේ වටිනාකම එකපාරටම බැස්සොත් මොකද වෙන්නේ?