Corporation Bank is focusing mainly on the agricultural and micro, small and medium-scale enterprises sectors this year, said its Executive Director Bibhas Kumar Srivastav.
Mr. Srivastav inaugurated an SME loan centre here last week.
The bank had three such SME loan centres in the country now, and planned to have six more by the end of March next, he said.
Sanctions up to Rs.10 lakh would be provided at these centres. Now, the bank’s exposure to micro, small and medium-scale enterprises was Rs.21,978 crore as against Rs.19,517 crore on March 31, 2013. It was hopeful of increasing SME credit to about Rs.26,000 crore by the end of this financial year. Credit to the SME sector grew at 34 per cent last year. Loans to SMEs were 17 per cent of the total lending by the bank.
Corporation Bank has sanctioned Rs.900 crore loans so far to the micro, small and medium-scale enterprises under the credit guarantee fund scheme. “We will increase our portfolio under this scheme,” he said.
The bank’s loans to the agriculture sector (agriculture and allied activities) were just 6.5 per cent of its total lending. It planned to increase it to 8 per cent by the end of this year. The bank had taken a lot of initiatives and introduced new products for the agricultural sector, he said.
