India’s largest public sector bank State Bank of India (SBI) is doubling down on its loan products for MSMEs. The bank, on Tuesday, launched a ‘SME Digital Business Loans’ initiative to sanction loan requests from MSMEs within 45 minutes, given that “MSME advances have been identified as the focal point for the bank’s growth and profitability over the next five years.”
The new solution will leverage authentic data sources including ITR, GST returns, and bank statements to underwrite loans quickly. SBI said it has developed a “data-driven credit assessment engine capable of providing sanction decisions within a remarkable 10 seconds after submitting the required details, without any human intervention.”
Speaking on the launch, Dinesh Khara, Chairman, SBI, said, “By leveraging the rich data footprint of MSME units in the ecosystem, we aim to provide the fastest and most intuitive lending process, further solidifying our position as the leading MSME lender in the country.”
MSMEs will be able to raise up to Rs 50 lakh loan for which the bank has waived the requirement for financial statements and instead would be relying on transaction history and GST returns for appraisal.
“The bank’s commitment to promote this segment is evident as it registered 20% credit growth in the SME Segment and the outstanding credit to SME borrowers crossed the mark of Rs 4 lakh crore,” SBI said in a statement.
Eligible MSMEs will able to apply for credit under the new solution via all channels including SBI’s branches, website, and SME Centres. The bank will broaden loan accessibility under the initiative across all its CSP partner touchpoints and via QR codes at outdoor touchpoints in the coming months.
Apart from the latest initiative, SBI has digitized the Mudra loan product and automated the collateral-free process for loans under CGTMSE cover for MSMEs.
The public sector lender’s credit card issuing arm SBI Card in September last year had launched a new credit card SimplySAVE Merchant SBI Card for MSMEs to cater to their short-term credit requirements.
