PSU banks to introduce home, auto loans on 59-minute MSME loan portal
State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Corporation Bank, Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank are some of the banks planning to onboard some of their retail products on the portal.
Public sector banks are gearing up to introduce retail products, including housing and auto loans, on the 'psbloansin59minutes' portal, with the aim to expand their retail loan business.
Currently, the portal gives in-principle approval for loans of up to Rs 1 crore to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in just 59 minutes or less than an hour.
However, some of the banks, including State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, and Corporation Bank, have decided to extend in-principle approval to loans of up to Rs 5 crore through the portal.
This is despite small business owners not being enthused with the 59-minute loans scheme, according to State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Rajnish Kumar.
Bank of India is also planning to onboard some of the retail products on the portal for easier access to loan products.
The bank is working on this, and home and auto loan will be onboarded on the portal going forward, said Bank of India General Manager Salil Kumar Swain.
Another state-owned lender, Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), also plans to offer retail loan products on the portal.
IOB has been actively participating on the portal for sanction of MSME loans and the bank has achieved an improvement in sanctioning of loans, as the number of cases and amount sanctioned shows a manifold increase since its inception, the bank said in a statement last week.
"As the scheme has drawn healthy response from the borrowers, the bank is in the process of extending in-principle sanction for loans up to Rs 5 crores under MSME. In due course of time, bank will also offer retail products (housing loan and personal loan) under this platform," the statement read.
The platform has helped in expediting loan disbursement and bringing ease in banking process by saving time for both bankers and customers, a senior official of another public sector bank said.
Touted as country's largest online lending platform, the portal was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November 2018 with an aim to make credit access and banking for MSMEs transparent and hassle-free.
