The importance of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in building the economy is crucial and it is well accepted that this sector has been contributing towards economic growth, exports and employment generation.
To ensure the systematic and smooth growth of the MSME sector, the Union Government enacted the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (MSMED) Act, 2006, on June 16, 2006, which was notified on October 2, 2006.
Further, various MSME clusters have been identified to ensure a well-organised growth of this segment.
Mangaluru-headquartered private sector Karnataka Bank has taken various initiatives to ensure smooth flow of credit to the MSME sector.
For FY-2017, the bank is targeting a credit of ₹9,650 crore to the MSE sector. Out of this, ₹330 crore has been assigned to ‘Mudra’.
Initially, the bank identified 160 branches as ‘Specialised MSME branches’ for focussed MSME financing.
Then, 50 more branches were identified taking the number of Specialised MSME branches to 210.
The bank has introduced a comprehensive scheme — KBL-MSME — to provide hassle-free finance to manufacturing and service activities under the retail segment.
Heads and officers of these specialised branches are given training in the MSME sector.
The bank has taken various digital banking initiatives to help MSMEs go for cashless transactions — 'KBL SMARTz' for receiving/sending money, 'KBL MOBILE' and 'KBL Money Click' for cashless transactions — besides RuPay Card and KBL POS for easy payments.
Karnataka Bank will continue to focus on MSMEs with a special emphasis on the micro sector.