The State Bank of India is mulling an increase in the instant loan scheme’s limit under its current scheme for the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) industry from the present limit to beyond Rs 5 crore. This will come as a part of SBI’s commitment to ensure ease and adequate credit availability for MSMEs.

The new scheme at the bank, ‘MSME Sahaj – End to End Digital Invoice Financing’, aims to ease the loan process in that it enables approval of applicants in 15 minutes without any manual intervention for loan documentation and disbursal. Talking to shareholders, SBI Chairman C. S. Setty said the bank launched a business rule engine last year for data-driven assessment of credit limits up to Rs 5 crore. A Permanent Account Number and consent to view the applicant’s own GST data would suffice. And approvals, thus within 15-45 minutes.

Setty has underlined that in the quest of the bank to simplify MSME credit, which increasingly is  cash-flow and financed by the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises, or CGTMSE reduces the emphasis on collateral and, thereby, induces entrepreneurs to shift from informal borrowing to formal channels. “We still have a considerable number of MSME customers accessing informal credit and we look forward to inducting them into the system,” he said.

Setty has plans for 600 new branches across India to complement SBI’s existing 22,542 branches as of March 2024. He said most of the new branches would target emerging residential areas currently underbanked by the bank.

Apart from a broad outreach through its branch network, SBI reaches its customers through 65,000 ATMs and 85,000 business correspondents. “We feel proud of serving about 50 crore customers, placing ourselves as the banker to every Indian family,” Setty observed. He vowed to make SBI the most valued bank for all stakeholders. It will remain a trusted partner of the financial ecosystem.