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SBI plans to raise limit under instant loan scheme for MSME sector

Submitted by admin on October 16th, 2024

The State Bank of India is going to enhance the threshold under the instant loan scheme from the existing Rs 5 crore and will soon ensure easy and adequate credit availability to the micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) sector.

‘MSME Sahaj – End to End Digital Invoice Financing’, provides solutions right from loan application, documentation and disbursement of the sanctioned loan within 15 minutes without any manual intervention.

“We have, last year, introduced a business rule engine based, data based assessment of the credit limits up to Rs 5 core. Anybody walking into our MSME branch has to give only their PAN and approval for sourcing GST data, we can give approval in 15-45 minutes,” SBI Chairman C S Setty told PTI in an interview.

The bank is simplifying credit for the MSME and making lending cash flow-based, he said, which will be supported by CGTMSE guarantee.

This will reduce the need for collateral, which will enable a lot of people coming into the formal MSME borrowing system, he said.

“We still have a large number of MSME customers accessing the informal credit. We would like to bring them to the banking fold,” he said.

On the network expansion, Setty said SBI was planning to open 600 branches across the country in the current financial year.

As of March 2024, the lender’s network stood at 22,542 branches across the country.

“We have strong branch expansion plans. this would be mainly focused on emerging areas. A lot of residential colonies are not covered by us. Around 600 branches is something we are planning in the current year,” he said.

Except for a vast branch network, the banks have SBI reaching its customers through 65,000 ATMs and 85,000 business correspondents.

“We service about 50 crore customers and we take pride in saying that we are the banker to every Indian, and, more importantly, to every Indian family,” he said.

He also said it would be his endeavour to convert SBI into the best and the most valued bank not only from a shareholder point of view but for every stakeholder who deals with the lender.

“It could be my customers, it could be our shareholders, it could be the larger ecosystem — the society, the institutional framework — all the stakeholders should be saying that this is the best bank to deal with,” he added.