Soon fund of Funds to Reach at SBI Level for MSMEs: Rajnish Kumar

To provide Rs 50,000 crore equity support to stressed Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) units, a Fund of Funds is formed as a part of Rs 20.97 lakh crore Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package expected to get operational soon, said Rajnish Kumar, Chairman, State Bank of India (SBI).

He said this while speaking at a virtual event organised by FICCI.

The SBI Chairman also said that the advancement of digital technology has revolutionized the process of lending to MSMEs as the availability of data and technology in the form of analytics has made it easier to automate lending decisions to the sector, which until now posed challenges.

"We will be using the digital platform in a big way for lending,'' he added.

Speaking about the various steps taken to help MSMEs, he said SBI announced an emergency credit line for MSMEs to improve their liquidity which has been hit by the outbreak of COVID-19.

The SBI chairman also said that the bank recently launched a gold loan scheme for MSMEs and sanctioned Rs 88 crore under this product within one month.

The objective of the Rs 10,000 crore Fund of Funds scheme is to help MSMEs with growth potential at a time when they are facing severe shortage of equity and low revenues.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in May had announced the Fund of Funds (FOF) will help MSMEs with growth potential and viability even as they face severe shortage of equity.