Days Past Due (DPD)
Days Past Due (DPD): Days Past Due is the number of days a payment has remained unpaid after its due date. DPD drives regulatory asset classification, determines which collections bucket an account sits in, and is reported to credit bureaus as part of repayment history.
Why Days Past Due (DPD) matters in credit and collections
- The foundation of credit scoring—any DPD over '000' negatively impacts CIBIL reports.
- Determines the RBI SMA and NPA classifications.
- Collection software executes specific workflows entirely based on the DPD value.
How DPD is counted and where it misleads
DPD counts from the day after the due date of the oldest unpaid instalment, and it does not reset on partial payment. An account that pays half of a missed instalment still carries the original ageing, because the oldest overdue amount is still outstanding. This trips up borrowers and, surprisingly often, collections teams reading their own dashboards.
Because DPD maps directly onto the SMA and NPA classifications, it is the operational hinge of Indian credit management: 1-30 days is SMA-0, 31-60 is SMA-1, 61-90 is SMA-2, and beyond 90 the account is an NPA. Every provisioning and reporting consequence follows from a day count.
Its limitation is that it measures elapsed time, not recoverability. Two accounts at 75 DPD can have entirely different outcomes — one a salaried borrower with a temporary cash gap, the other a business with structural stress. Using DPD alone to allocate collections effort means spending the same money on both, which is why mature teams combine DPD with a propensity score.
Regulatory basis
DPD thresholds underpin the SMA and NPA classifications in RBI's IRAC norms, which require day-end classification. DPD is also part of the repayment history reported to credit information companies under the Credit Information Companies (Regulation) Act framework.
Source: Reserve Bank of IndiaHow to use DPD well
- Use DPD for classification and compliance, but not as your only allocation input.
- Combine DPD with propensity to pay, exposure and security status when deciding channel and intensity.
- Watch bucket-level roll rates rather than average portfolio DPD, which hides everything interesting.
- Be explicit internally that partial payment does not reset ageing — it is a recurring source of reporting confusion.
- Reconcile DPD in your collections system against the classification used for regulatory reporting; divergence is common and creates audit risk.
Days Past Due (DPD) — frequently asked questions
Does a partial payment reduce DPD?
No. DPD is measured from the due date of the oldest still-unpaid amount. A partial payment reduces the outstanding balance but leaves the ageing intact until the full overdue amount is cleared.
How does DPD affect a borrower's credit score?
DPD is reported to credit bureaus as part of monthly repayment history, and longer delays weigh more heavily. A 90+ day delinquency has a materially greater and longer-lasting effect on a score than a brief 1-30 day delay.