PNB Sanctions Loans Worth Rs 689 Crore To 1,600 MSMEs Under Modi’s 59-Minute Initiative

Punjab National Bank sanctioned loans worth Rs 689 crore to over 1,600 micro, small and medium enterprises through the psbloansin59minutes.com portal as part of its effort to promote such industries.

Under the Mudra Yojana, the bank has offered loans to over 2.69 lakh small entrepreneurs this fiscal (till Feb. 14, 2019).

“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 1,600 accounts with total sanctioned amount of Rs 689 crore (till February end),” PNB Managing Director Sunil Mehta said.

MSMEs through this portal can avail loans of up to Rs 1 crore in 59 minutes. MSMEs apply for loans using their goods and services tax registration as the portal is integrated with GST server at the back-end as well as IT, credit bureaus and banks. It is able to quickly score the applicant on individual models of lenders (currently only public sector banks).

It is a strategic initiative of SIDBI-led PSB consortium incubated under the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance. Other partner banks are the State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Indian Bank.

With regard to the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, Mehta said since the inception of the scheme, PNB has sanctioned loan to over 17.16 lakh accounts with total amount of 21,019 crore till Dec. 31.