Confident of crossing Rs 9,000-cr lending to small units, says Vijaya Bank CMD

The public sector Vijaya Bank is confident of crossing Rs 9,000 crore in financing the MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) sector during the current financial year.

In an informal chat with presspersons on the sidelines of an SME meet here on Friday — Mr H. S. Upendra Kamath, Chairman and Managing Director, Vijaya Bank, said that the bank financed the MSME sector to the extent of Rs 7,481 crore till end-December. It has set a target of Rs 9,106 crore in MSME financing in the current fiscal. Mr Kamath hoped that with 35 specialised SME branches the bank can achieve this target by March-end.

Added to this, the bank has come out with MSME credit-processing centres in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Pune. These are separate business entities with separate a administrative set-up. These MSME credit processing centres will help both the bank and the entrepreneurs in speedy disposal of the proposals, he said.

vinayakaj@thehindu.co.in