Indian Overseas Bank would step up advances to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), said Karnam Sekar, its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, here on Saturday.
Till last year, IOB had sanctioned loans for 7,423 MSMEs, and with the outreach programme, it would only increase. Nearly 400 IOB employees had undergone special training to understand the needs of MSMEs and would be posted at branches to facilitate the process, he said, speaking at the MSME Support and Outreach Programme organised here on Saturday.
“Thirty-two branches in Tamil Nadu, in areas identified as MSME-intensive, will process applications and sanction loans within two hours,” he said. The bank also offered loans to individuals and MSMEs within an hour through psbloansin59minutes.com, a fully-online initiative to ease access to credit by public sector banks, he added. Mr. Sekar urged the MSMEs to avail themselves of the schemes offered by the State and Central governments.
Collector S. Sivarasu handed over loans amounting to ₹26 crore to 259 MSMEs on the occasion. “There are 444 bank branches in the district. IOB has 63 branches. In the year 2018-19, the loans advanced by IOB in Tiruchi district was ₹102 crore. This year, the amount has already crossed ₹25 crore. Applicants can approach a bank branch with the required documents and have loans sanctioned easily,” he said. The District Industries Centre at the Tiruchi Collectorate could be approached for guidance, he added.
Speaking to reporters earlier in the day, Mr. Sekar said, “It is our duty to support the MSMEs so that they can contribute to the economy of our country,” he said.
IOB was able to restructure nearly 30,000 loan accounts, with approval from the Reserve Bank of India. “We will now identify customers with potential non-performing assets, discuss with them on a case-by-case basis. The period of the loan and the interest rate can be extended,” he said.
