Tag: small businesses

Mudra loan ratio trebles to 20% during pandemic as stress hits small businesses, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Banking & Finance

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A man displays new 2000 Indian rupee banknotes after withdrawing them from a State Bank of India (SBI) branch in Kolkata, India, November 10, 2016. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri/Files

Gross NPAs in the Mudra loan book is estimated to have reached around 20 per cent at June-end 2021, from around 6 per cent at March-end 2020.

As the stress builds up in the economy due to pandemic, lenders are seeing a sharp uptick in NPAs in Mudra loans, which have trebled in June 2021 over the pre-Covid fiscal of 2019-20.

Gross NPAs in the Mudra loan book is estimated to have reached around 20 per cent at June-end 2021, from around 6 per cent at March-end 2020.

In Maharashtra, public sector banks’ Mudra loan NPAs have risen to 32 per cent at June-end 2021, from 26 per cent at June-end 2020.

SBI’s NPA on Mudra loans in the state is at 59 per cent as on June-end 2021 followed by Punjab National Bank at 44 per cent, Indian Bank at 33 per cent and Bank of Maharashtra at 31 per cent at June-end 2021.

In Jharkahnd, Canara Bank Mudra NPAs as high as 114.35 per cent as bad loans were Rs 183.63 crore against the outstanding amount of loans at Rs 160.58 crore.

Among private sector banks, HDFC Bank’s Mudra loan NPA in Jharkhand was at 26.21 per cent, followed by IDFC First Bank at 24.93 per cent.

The Credit Guarantee Fund for Micro Units (CGFMU) provides guarantee against loan losses in Mudra loans, but 75 per cent of NPAs in Mudra loans, while the rest of losses have to be borne by the banks.

Loan losses

Public sector banks (PSBs) have seen a sharp surge in the amount of Mudra loans turning into non-performing assets (NPAs) over the last three years. NPAs in Mudra loans had jumped to Rs 18,835 crore in 2019-20, from Rs 11,483 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 7,277 in 2017-18, according to the Finance Ministry data.

Mudra loan disbursements by state-owned banks rose to Rs 3.82 lakh crore in 2019-20, from Rs 3.05 lakh crore in 2018-19 and Rs 2.12 lakh crore in 2017-18. The Mudra loan NPAs as a percentage of total loans rose to 4.92 per cent in 2019-20 from 3.42 per cent in 2017-18.

Banks and financial institutions have sanctioned Rs 14.96 lakh crore to over 28.68 crore beneficiaries in the last six years. The average ticket size of the loans is about Rs 52,000, it said.

Under PMMY collateral-free loans of up to ₹10 Lakh are extended by Member Lending Institutions (MLIs) viz Scheduled Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks (RRBs), Small Finance Banks (SFBs), Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) etc.

The scheme

Under the scheme, credit up to Rs 10 lakh is provided by banks and non-banking financial companies to small and new businesses.

The loans are given for income generating activities in manufacturing, trading and services sectors and for activities allied to agriculture.

The government has sanctioned loans of Rs 15.5 lakh crore under PMMY since its inception in April 2015.

Till March 31, 2021, the Government had sanctioned 29.55 crore loans under the scheme. Of this more than 6.8 crore loans worth Rs 5.2 lakh crores have been given to new entrepreneurs.

For FY22, loans worth Rs 3,804 crore have been sanctioned by 13 public sector banks (PSBs) as on June 25.



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Inclusion of traders, retailers as MSMEs to improve ease of doing business, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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By: Gaurav Mohan

The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector in India has emerged as a highly vibrant and dynamic sector of the Indian economy over the last five decades.

It not only plays a crucial role in providing large scale employment opportunities at comparatively lower capital cost than large industries but also help in industrialization of rural & backward areas and in reducing regional imbalances, assuring more equitable distribution of national income and wealth.

MSMEs are complementary to large scale industries such as ancillary units and this sector contributes enormously to the socio-economic development of the country.

MSME Act

The Micro; Small and Medium Enterprises Development (MSMED) Act was notified in 2006 by the MSME Ministry to address policy issues affecting MSMEs as well as the coverage and investment ceiling of the sector.

The Minister of MSME and Road Transport had announced the inclusion of Retail and Wholesale traders as Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSMEs). This move by the Government is expected to benefit over 2.5 crore retail and wholesale traders in a positive way..

In 2020, the Government of India had launched Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan (ABA) and also changed the MSMEs classification by inserting composite criteria of both investment and annual turnover. Also, the distinction between the manufacturing and the services sectors under the MSME definition was removed in year 2020.The following is the current MSMEs classification, where the investment or annual turnover are to be considered for deciding an MSMEs:

 Micro enterprises-where the investment in plant and machinery or equipment does not exceed one crore rupees and turnover does not exceed five crore rupees;

 Small enterprises-where the investment in plant and machinery or equipment does not exceed ten crore rupees and turnover does not exceed fifty crore rupees; and

 Medium enterprise- where the investment in plant and machinery or equipment does not exceed fifty crore rupees and turnover does not exceed two hundred and fifty crore rupees

If any enterprise crosses the ceiling limits specified for its present category in either of the two criteria of investment or turnover, it will cease to exist in that category and be placed in the next higher category but no enterprise shall be placed in the lower category unless it goes below the ceiling limits specified for its present category in both the criteria of investment as well as turnover.

Thereby it can be said that wef July 1, 2020 above limits would be equally applicable for every entity in the service sector, so as to establish the eligibility criteria under MSMEs laws.

Inclusion of traders, retailers in MSMEs

Earlier in the year 2017, the Government had removed retail and wholesale traders from the MSMEs category. Thereby the existing definition of MSMEs covers only Manufacturing and Service Sector enterprises. Government of India received many requests and representations to include more services provided by wholesales & retailers under the regime of MSMEs to give support to their businesses, especially during the pandemic crisis.

The Ministry of MSME wide Office Memorandum dated- July 2, 2021 had issued an order to include retail and wholesale trade as MSME. This will enable them to harness the benefit of priority sector lending, and they will now be able to register on the Udyam Registration Portal. To be specific, now from 02.07.2021follwing additional services are being added to this list eligible for MSME:

 Wholesale and retail trade and repairs for services related to motor vehicle and motorcycles

 Wholesale trade except of services related to motor vehicles and motorcycles

 Retail Trade Except of services related to Motor Vehicles and motorcycles

MSME tag benefits

This move to include more services in MSMEs would be of great benefit to wholesalers and retailers, few of which are listed below:

 Benefit from various schemes issued by Government of India in order to help them to access to the funds available and manage the pandemic situation & financials crisis such as:

 Cap of Rs. 500 crores of loan outstanding removed.

 100 % guarantee cover on loans up to Rs. 2 crores.

 ECLGS scheme expansion.

 Benefits of RBI restructuring.

 The Udyam portal is a free, paperless online and instant registration portal for MSME and now retail & wholesale traders can register on it and can become eligible for many more benefits available to MSME Sector like-

 Concessional loan rate by bank.

 Concession in Electricity bills

 Exemption in direct tax & indirect tax laws.

 Various COVID-19 relaxations related to business and taxation.

 To take benefits of Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ELCGS), the total budget has now been increased to INR 4.5 lakhs crore by Finance Ministry on June 28, 2021 to provide relief to MSMEs affected by the second wave of COVID-19.

 More than 400 old customs duty exemptions granted this year.

 Nationalised exemptions on import of duty free items as an incentive to exporters of garments, leather & handicraft items. Most of these are manufactured by MSMEs entities.

 Reduced compliance burden and limit increased for tax audits from INR 5 crores to INR 10 crores.

Such benefits would definitely help the registered Wholesale & Retail traders to stand up in the Indian Economy during the COID-19 Pandemic crisis situation & now they will be governed by MSME’s regulations issued by MSME Ministry for MSMEs.

Conclusion

COVID-19 pandemic affected traders will now be able to restore their businesses by obtaining necessary finances from the banks which were earlier denied by the Banks which will boost the Indian Economy in a positive way.

Taking into consideration the situation of COVID-19 in India, MSME Ministry should increase the limit of Annual turnover & Investments so that more service providers can get registered as MSMEs and can get relief with loss in second COVID-19 wave & expected upcoming waves.

About the Author: Gaurav Mohan is CEO at AMRG & Associates.

Disclaimer: The views expressed are solely of the authors and ETCFO.com does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETCFO.com shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly.



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HDFC Bank to double rural coverage to 2L villages, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Mumbai: HDFC Bank will double the number of villages it serves from 1 lakh to 2 lakh in the next couple of years by extending the footprint of its branches and through alternate channels. This is part of the bank’s strategy to increase the share of small businesses and rural, which are the fastest-growing segments for it.

“Priority sector lending is not a sideshow but becomes the main show as banks grow larger. The commercial and rural banking (CRB) business is driving this,” said HDFC Bank group head (CRB) Rahul Shukla. The bank’s rural business grew 19% year-on-year in the first quarter despite the lockdown.

“At present, we serve 1 lakh villages, covering both the wealthy as well as small and marginal farmers. We plan to increase that to 2 lakh in the next couple of years,” said Shukla. He added that this would be achieved without a corresponding doubling of resources.

The bank is extending the footprint of its 5,500 odd branches by using alternate channels like the government’s common services centres (CSCs), which provide digital services to rural areas. The bank extends overdraft to leads generated by the CSCs based on their six months’ bank statement. It has also signed up 1.7 lakh village-level entrepreneurs (VLEs), of which 1.1 lakh have been onboarded as business facilitators.

These VLEs have been empowered to issue sanction letters for consumer loans based on customer eligibility. Besides this, rural customers can access loans through the self-service digital portal as well.Extending the rural reach is part of HDFC Bank’s strategy of growing loans to small businesses. “India always had this entrepreneurial class. What has changed is that there is a lot more data available. Besides bureau data, there is bank transaction data and many small businesses are becoming part of corporate supply chains,” said Shukla.

According to Shukla, the opportunity is not in lending to 1.5-2 crore entrepreneurs who are already borrowing from banks, but the remaining 4.5 crore who are not yet part of formal credit. Tapping this segment is not possible without reaching out to semi-urban and rural India he said.



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Small businesses hit as banks freeze current a/cs

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Operations of thousands of small businesses across the country were disrupted after their current accounts were closed on Monday, as banks rushed to comply with the Reserve Bank of India’s directive on the opening of such accounts by borrowers aimed at preventing diversion of funds.

As per the RBI’s directive issued in August 2020, no bank can open current accounts for customers who have availed of credit facilities in the form of cash credit (CC)/overdraft (OD) from the banking system. While the central bank had given banks time until end-July to implement the new rules, many account holders were caught unaware.

Accounts frozen

Rajiv Podar, President of IMC Chamber of Commerce & Industry, said borrowers across corporate as well as non-corporate structures did not receive any intimation from the banks and were surprised to find all the current accounts frozen, leading to complete operational disruption.

“For example, project accounts are frozen, plant-wise current accounts are frozen, banks have withdrawn current account products without any intimation, which is against the spirit of banking. How will the companies pay salaries in August and even all other statutory dues?,” Podar asked.

Besides maintaining a cash credit/overdraft account with the lead bank in the consortium of banks, businesses with pan-India operations also have relationships with other banks with either a strong presence in specific geographical locations or offering superior product and service capabilities or both. But concerned about the diversion of funds by borrowers via accounts outside the consortium, the RBI had imposed restrictions on the opening of CC/OD accounts by borrowers.

Banks are now forcing companies to route all their transactions only through the bank which had extended cash credit and overdraft facilities. While MSMEs are allowed to open as many current accounts as possible for receiving credits, all debits have to happen only through the bank which has an exposure of over 10 per cent of the borrower.

Chandrakant Salunkhe, President, SME Chamber of India, said many small units are struggling to meet their payment commitments even after having the required money in the bank as their accounts are frozen and attempt to release the funds would take 15 days to one month.

Compliance status

Meanwhile, the RBI, on Monday, took stock of the compliance status of banks with its directive. Banks are believed to have largely complied with the RBI’s directive.

To alleviate the suffering of borrowers, Podar sought a breather of six months for implementing the guidelines in a modified manner, with proper guidelines to banks and clients.

“Lead banks should be allowed to hold multiple shadow current accounts to meet borrower requirements such as salary, contract-specific, location-specific, purpose-specific, etc. Each shadow account shall have a unique number and a standalone bank statement,” the IMC President said.

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Banks disburse over Rs 2 lakh cr under ECLGS till mid-July, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Nearly 17 months after the launch of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), banks have sanctioned Rs 2.76 lakh crore, with disbursals adding up to Rs 2.14 lakh crore till mid-July.

Similarly, the PM SVANidhi scheme, providing loans of up to Rs 10,000 to street vendors, has seen flows of a little over Rs 2,500 crore to 25 lakh vendors, although the internal target was more ambitious, with banks nudged to give loans.

Although the government has announced an increase in the ECLGS limit from Rs 3 lakh crore to Rs 4.5 lakh crore, officials do not expect a major surge, amid demands that eligibility norms be eased to enable more small businesses to use the window. When the scheme was announced last year, it was meant for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), but the scope was enlarged later as the demand was not sufficient.

Up to July 2, a little less than 1.1 crore MSME borrowers have been provided guarantee-based support amounting to Rs 1.65 lakh crore, which translates into an average ticket size of Rs 1.5 lakh. Under the originally announced scheme, MSMEs that had loans of up to Rs 50 crore at the end of February 2020 were eligible even with past dues of up to 60 days.

MSME industry groups say that the conditions are such that it is difficult for businesses to get a loan. “The requirements were such that only a certain set of entities with existing loans were eligible. Now banks are reluctant to lend. The government should have dropped the condition of prior credit because we are seeing cash flows being disrupted for a lot of MSME units,” said Animesh Saxena, president of Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME).

Recently, the parliamentary standing committee on industry noted that there is a huge gap between sanctions and disbursals as banks feared defaults in the wake of the second wave, and also said that only half the amount has gone to small businesses.



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RBI’s current account rule kicks in, hits small firms, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Small businessmen and firms are hit as banks rush to meet the July 31, Reserve Bank of India deadline for not opening current account for borrowers who have loans with other banks

Banks are freezing current accounts of firms with more than 10% loans with other banks. Mostly small firms are hit as large corprates have their loans spread across banks.

The circular

In its August 6, 2020, circular, the regulator had mandated that no bank shall open current accounts for customers who have availed credit facilities in the form of CC/OD from the banking system, and all transactions shall be routed through the CC/OD account. The RBI moved was targeted to ensure greater discipline and transparency in the way large borrowers move funds.

Banks can have current accounts for that bank which accounts for at least 10% of its loans, according to RBI rules.

It had said that in the case where a bank’s exposure to a borrower was less than 10% of the banking system’s exposure to that borrower, debits to the CC/OD account can only be for credit to the CC/OD account of that borrower with a bank that has 10% or more of the exposure of the banking system to that borrower.

The circular was to be implemented by January this year. However, with banks dragging their feet, the central bank has imposed July 2021 as a final deadline.

However, small borrowers who use one bank to borrow and another for transactions will no longer be able to do so.

Several entrepreneurs, who do banking with private banks for their superior service, but have loans with public sector banks have been hit by the circular as their accounts are frozen.

Big banks gain

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) insistence on companies opening current accounts with banks is among the factors that have helped large lenders such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and SBI raise their shares of the competitive corporate banking market in 2020, according to a report.

The RBI had come up with the circular that specified which bank can open a current account for a borrower, in order to check any misuse through multiple current accounts.

A fourth of the large and medium corporates said they were banking with at least one among ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank as against 17 per cent in 2016, it said adding that the private sector banks have grown at over 25 per cent per year.



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Breather for borrowers and small businesses as RBI allows Restructuring 2.0, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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The Reserve Bank of India has brought back the restructuring scheme for retail and small business borrowers allowing the lenders and borrower to brace the impact of the ongoing severe second wave of Covid-19 across the country.

RBI Governor, Shaktikanta Das said, “Small businesses and financial entities at the grassroot level are bearing the biggest brunt of the second wave of infections.”

He added, “The resurgence of COVID-19 pandemic in India in recent weeks and the associated containment measures adopted at local/regional levels have created new uncertainties and impacted the nascent economic revival that was taking shape. In this environment the most vulnerable category of borrowers are individual borrowers, small businesses and MSMEs.”

Under the Resolution Framework 2.0 for COVID Related Stressed Assets of Individuals, Small Businesses and MSMEs, borrowers who have aggregate exposure upto Rs 25 crore and have not availed restructuring in previous framework and who are classified as standard as of March 31, 2021 will be eligible for restructuring. The proposal has to be invoked up to September 30, 2021 and shall be implemented within 90 days after invocation.

Borrowers who have availed restructuring in the earlier framework where the resolution plan is permitted for less than two years are being permitted to use this window to modify their plans to extend the period of moratorium or tenor of the loan up to a total of 2 years.

For small businesses and MSMEs restructured earlier the central bank has allowed lending institutions as a one-time measure to review the working capital sanctioned limits based on a reassessment of working capital cycle, margins and other parameters.

Aashit Shah, Partner at J Sagar Associates said, “Restructuring guidelines for MSMEs, small businesses and individuals will assist them tide over the uncertainties caused due to the second wave. These guidelines as well as the recently introduced pre-arranged insolvency resolution process will enable MSMEs to restructure their debts without the looming fear of losing or liquidating their businesses.”

“Opening a one-time restructuring window for individuals and MSME till September 2021 will give an impetus to scale up their business without worrying about financial destitution,” said Rajesh Sharma, MD at Capri Global Capital Ltd.



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Lendingkart’s NBFC arm raises ₹108 crore from Dutch bank FMO

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Lendingkart, a financial services and fintech start-up, announced a new round of fund raising of $15 million (₹108 crore) in debt funding from FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank. With this deal, Lendingkart strengthens its three-year relationship with the bank, having received funds through NCDs (non-convertible debentures) and increasing its cumulative exposure to $19 million with this transaction.

FMO supports sustainable private sector growth in developing countries and emerging markets. This new influx of funds to Lendingkart will be utilised towards expanding the reach of financial products to the MSME segment through Lendingkart’s digital platform across 100 sub-industries spread across India.

Lendingkart to launch ‘credit intelligence services’ for banks

Lendingkart Group is a leading Fintech company in India, providing short-term working capital loans to SME borrowers under Lendingkart Finance Limited — a non-deposit taking NBFC arm of Lendingkart Group. Founded in 2014 by Harshvardhan Lunia, Lendingkart has evaluated nearly half a million applications, disbursing 1,00,000+ loans to more than 91,000 MSMEs in 1300+ cities across all 29 States and Union Territories of the nation, making it the NBFC with the largest geographical footprint in the country.

Focus on women entrepreneurs

The Group which has received an equity infusion of ₹1,050 crore to date, is financed by reputed international investors like Fullerton Financial Holding (FFH) (100 per cent subsidiary of Singapore Sovereign Fund Temasek Holdings), Saama Capital, Mayfield India, Bertelsmann, Sistema Asia and India Quotient. The Group had received an equity infusion of ₹319 crore in FY 2021.

Lendingkart ramps up headcount, promotes high performers

“We raised ₹1,800 crore in debt funding last fiscal. To support our growth plans we plan to raise a further ₹3,000 crore in debt funding from PSU and Private Banks, Small Banks, NBFCs, AIFs, HNIs and Overseas Funds. We are targeting 40 per cent growth over the pre-Covid year, this fiscal. We closed last fiscal with ₹30 crore in profits and sustained this till December 2020 despite the pandemic. With this new fund raise, Lendingkart will fast-track its efforts to improve financial inclusion and credit reach to 5,000 + new MSMEs with a focus on small businesses and women entrepreneurs,” Sudeep Bhatia, Lendingkart Group CFO, told BusinessLine. By FY 22, Lendingkart has planned to onboard 1.25 lakh MSMEs on its portfolio.

“Lendingkart Finance is a fast-evolving company and has become a leader in the fintech space in India. The new transaction is aligned to FMO’s ambition to accelerate financial inclusion through innovative technological solutions. As India recovers from the pandemic and uncertainties presented by it, we are pleased we can partner with Lendingkart to better support its customers, with a focus towards women-run businesses and micro enterprises” said Huib-Jan de Ruijter, Chief Investment Officer (a.i.), FMO.

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Indifi Technologies bags ₹35-cr debt funding from IndusInd Bank

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Indifi Technologies, a Gurugram-based online lending platform for small businesses, has secured ₹35 crore in debt financing from IndusInd Bank Ltd, with a guarantee from US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

These funds were from IndusInd Bank’s impact investing group to Riviera Investors Private Ltd, which is Indifi’s in-house NBFC arm. These funds will be used for onward lending to small businesses to accelerate post-Covid-19 economic recovery, the company said in a statement.

“The guarantee from DFC eliminates foreign exchange rate fluctuation risk from the balance sheet of Riviera and it has become an important tool to mobilise debt funding for impact space companies. We have done $30 million of DFC’s guarantee-backed transactions till date, out of which $25 million has been done in FY21,” Roopa Satish, Head-Corporate & Investment Banking, CSR & Sustainable Banking at IndusInd Bank, said.

Indifi has disbursed more than 30,000 loans across over 12 industries since inception through a network of 20 lenders and 80 partners. Recently, Indifi forayed into the pharmaceutical segment and will be extending its credit line solution to retailers — especially pharma distributors and local chemists — for managing their working capital needs and cash flows.

“Indifi deploys a unique and innovative approach to improve access to finance for small businesses, which are an important engine for economic growth in the Indian economy. Indifi’s support is especially important for India’s small businesses as they weather the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and recover from its effects,” Loren Rodwin, Managing Director of Social Enterprise Finance in DFC’s Office of Development Credit, said.

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“We are building SBFC with an aspiration of being a bank one day”

Banking & Finance

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SBFC Finance (formerly Small Business Fincredit India Pvt Ltd) plans to grow its loan portfolio by 15 per cent every quarter and expand branch network to 150 in the next 18 months even as it eyes conversion into a small finance bank (SFB).

The Mumbai-headquartered non-banking finance company, which provides loans to micro, small and medium enterprises, businesses, gold and personal loans, and loan management services to other lenders, currently has assets under management aggregating ₹3,500 crore and 112 branches spread across 15 States.

“We are building SBFC with an aspiration of being a bank one day. This means compliance and governance of bank standards from day one,” said Mahesh Dayani, Chief Business Officer.

Customer profile

Dayani observed that SBFC’s borrowers are general trade customers who are transiting from unorganised borrowing for the first time and ticket sizes are between ₹12-15 lakhs.

Post moratorium, this segment has performed the best in terms of repayment, he added.

Dayani feels that this is a great time to add distribution and scale as infrastructure, human and financial capital are competitively priced. SBFC disburses more than ₹100 crores on a monthly basis, he added.

Also read: ICICI Bank, Small Business FinCredit join hands to provide loans to MSMEs

He opined that the supply side is constrained and SBFC can choose the credit it wants to underwrite across select States.

“Lending is easy but profitability comes from loan repayments. Therefore, it is important that you grow in a manner which dosen’t burn your financial or human capital.

“We’ve seen companies chasing very high growth rates and then slowing down to cover risk costs or adjust manpower or business plans. This punctures the enthusiasm of all stakeholders since surprises in financial services is not welcome,” explained Dayani.

He noted that the micro enterprise segment is largely under-served and synonymous with unorganised borrowings. Hence, SBFC is largely in those districts which are under-served.

After the lockdown and the end pandemic-related loan moratorium, first time borrowers continued to pay monthly installments and were a lot more disciplined than those who had multiple loans running with reasonable credit scores, going by SBFC’s experience.

Conversion into SFB

“We aspire to be a bank one day…We are only three years in the business and the first qualification (to become a SFB) is a minimum of 5 years of operations amongst other conditions.

“There are multiple variables at play to be a bank and hence at the right time, we will take a step in that direction,” Dayani said.

He underscored that in terms of size, most microfinance institutions/NBFCs which applied for SFB license (in 2015) were in the (AUM) range of ₹1,500 crore to ₹4,000 crore at the time of application.

On a pre-qualification basis, SBFC ticks the box on ticket sizes, priority sector lending, consistent profitability and capital requirements, he added.

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