PNB sanctions loans worth Rs 689 Crore to 1600 MSMEs under '59-minute' initiative

Punjab National Bank (PNB) has sanctioned loans worth Rs 689 crore to 1600 MSMEs under Prime Minister Narendra Modi '59-minute' initiative. The loans have been sanctioned through psbloanin59minutes.com portal as part of its effort to promote micro, small, and medium enterprises.

Under the Mudra Yojana Scheme, the bank has offered loans to over 2.69 lakh small entrepreneurs till February 2019.

Sunil Mehta, Managing Director of PNB told PTI- "In November 2018, Hon'ble Prime Minister announced the launch of the 59 minute loan portal to enable easy access to credit for MSMEs. Under this initiative, the bank has sanctioned loans to over 1600 accounts with total sanctioned amount of Rs 689 crore (till February end)."

MSMEs through this initiative can avail a loan of up to Rs 1 crore is 59 minutes or in less than an hour. The MSMEs can apply for the loan through their GST registration number as the portal is integrated with GST server at the backened as well as IT, credit bureaus and banks. It is able to quickly score the applicant on individual models of lenders.

It is a strategic initiative of SIDBI led PSB consortium incubated under the Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance. Other partner banks are the SBI, Bank of Baroda, PNB, Vijaya and Indian Bank.

Sunil Mehta also said that since the inception of the scheme, PNB has sanctioned loan to over 17.16 lakh accounts with total amount of Rs 21,019 crore till December 31. "In the current financial year, the bank has offered the loan to over 2.69 lakh accounts with total amount sanctioned being 5,290 crore till February 14, 2019. The scheme has helped millions of small enterprises in the country and will continue to do so, in the coming years. The bank has exceeded the government targets under Mudra scheme and has provided additional working capital limit to MSMEs," he added.

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