UCO Bank to open 37 SME hubs pan-India in FY12

To tap the high-growth potential in the small-and-medium-enterprises (SME) sector, public lender UCO Bank plans to open 37 SME hubs pan-India in FY12 to facilitate single window clearance for loans.

"SMEs have been accepted as the engine of economic growth. We want to focus on this sector and so have planned to set up 37 hubs that will cater to the loan requirements of SMEs," UCO Bank Chairman and Managing Director Arun Kaul told PTI here.

The bank has already set up two hubs, in Delhi and Mumbai, for disbursing loans to SMEs.

By 2011-end, the bank plans to open 26 hubs in various cities including Delhi, Coimbatore, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Ludhiana, Jaipur, Vellore, Surat, Ernakulam and Mumbai.

"We have formulated a plan to set up 16 hubs by June this year and 10 by September-end. We want to ensure availability of adequate and timely credit to this sector," he said.

The bank wants to double its credit flow to SMEs in the next 1-2 years. "Of the total disbursals currently, around 10% goes towards SME loans. We now want to double the flow of credit to the sector in the next 1-2 years," he said.

The process for disbursal of loans would be completed in 21 days from the date of application, he said.

The bank provides working capital and term loans to SMEs engaged in the manufacturing process with investment in plant and machinery or equipment of above Rs 25 lakh to Rs 10 crore.

It also provides loans to enterprises engaged in the services sector with a minimum investment of above Rs 10 lakh to Rs 5 crore bracket.