Corporation Bank CMD inaugurates SME Loan Centre at Ludhiana

Ludhiana, April 23, 2014: Corporation Bank, a premier Public Sector Bank opened its exclusive SME Loan Centre at Ludhiana, on Wednesday.
S R Bansal, Chairman & Managing Director of the Bank inaugurated the fully furnished SME Loan Centre. N B Kulasekaran, Circle General Manager, S Narayanan, Deputy General Manager & Zonal Head, Ludhiana, other executives of the Bank and esteemed customers of the Bank were present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Bansal said during the Financial Year 2013-14, SME Loan Centres with dedicated Relationship Managers backed by exclusive processing team were operationalised at Bangalore, New Delhi, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Pune to extend a timely and hassle free credit to SMEs. The Ludhiana SME Loan Centre is the eighth centre operationalised by the Bank. For the current Financial Year, the Bank envisages a growth of 35 % under the MSE segment.
He added SME Clusters such as Auto Components, Hosiery, Machine Tools, Handtools, Forging, Bicycle parts, Sewing machine components, Industrial Fastners and Electroplating in and around Ludhiana would be greatly benefitted with this new initiative of the Bank.
Further, he said lending to the SME sector is one of the thrust areas of the Bank. As on 31.03.2014, the SME portfolio of the Bank stood at Rs.24,818 crore as against Rs.19,517 crore as on 31.03.2013. The net increase, on Y-O-Y basis, is to the extent of Rs.5,301 crore (27%). Out of the SME portfolio, advances under the MSE stood at Rs.23,816 crore as at 31.03.2014 as against Rs.18,555 crore as on 31.03.2013. The net increase is the extent of Rs.5,261 crore (28%).
Bansal said in terms of the recommendations of the Prime Minister’s Task Force on MSME, Bank has achieved the Y-O-Y growth of 28.35 % in Credit flow to Micro and Small Enterprises (as against target of 20%) and  28.27% annual growth in the number of Micro Enterprise accounts (as against target of 10%) as on 31.03.2014.       
CMD said during the FY 2013-14, SME loan centres of the Bank have accorded a cumulative sanction of Rs.3,897 crore in 5,437 accounts.
He said Corporation Bank is committed to extend its best services to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises at a very competitive price and shall remain a hand holding partner in a journey of togetherness in realising the entrepreneur’s dreams.
He added for the year 2012-13, Bank has been awarded First Prize under National Award for Excellence in MSE Lending and Second Prize under National Award for Excellence in Lending to Micro Enterprises by the National Committee under the Ministry of MSME. Bank also received SKOCH Achiever Award for SME enablement during the year 2013-14.