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

To ensure easy and adequate credit availability to the MSME sector, the State Bank of India (SBI) is planning to enhance the threshold under the instant loan scheme from the existing Rs 5 crore.

'MSME Sahaj - End to End Digital Invoice Financing', provides solutions ranging from applying for the loan, 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.

Simplification of the MSME credit is something that the bank is emphasising on and making lending cash flow based backed by the CGTMSE guarantee, he said.

This reduces the need for collateral, which would enable a lot of people to come 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.

As far as network expansion is concerned, Setty said SBI is planning to open 600 branches across the country in the current financial year.

SBI has a network of 22,542 branches across the country as of March 2024.

"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.

Apart from a vast branch network, SBI reaches its customers through 65,000 ATMs and 85,000 business correspondents.

"We serve 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 will be his endeavour to transform 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.