State Bank of India (SBI) is planning to increase the loan limit under the instant loan scheme from the current Rs 5 crore to provide easy and adequate loans to the MSME sector. ‘MSME Sahaj’ is a ‘digital invoice’ financing scheme. Under this, the facility of applying for a loan, providing documents and issuing the approved loan is provided within 15 minutes without any human intervention.
“We had started a data-based assessment for loan limits of up to Rs 5 crore last year. Anyone coming to our MSME branch only needs to provide their PAN and access to GST data. We can give approval in 15-45 minutes,” SBI Chairman C S Shetty told PTI. He said the bank is pushing for simplification of MSME loans. This reduces the need for collateral, and will enable many people to come into the organised MSME lending system.
Shetty said, “There are still a large number of MSME customers who are taking loans from the unorganized sector. We would like to bring them under the ambit of the bank.” On the question of network expansion, Shetty said that SBI is planning to open 600 branches across the country in the current financial year. As of March 2024, SBI had a network of 22,542 branches across the country. He said, “We have strong plans for branch expansion… It will mainly focus on emerging areas. We have not reached many residential colonies. We are planning to open about 600 branches in the current year.”
Apart from a vast branch network, SBI serves its customers through 65,000 ATMs and 85,000 bank correspondents. “We serve nearly 50 crore customers and we are proud to say that we are the banker to every Indian and every Indian family,” he said. Shetty said his endeavour is to transform SBI into the best and most valuable bank not only for shareholders but for every stakeholder.
