PNB sanctions loans worth Rs. 689 crore through online portal

Government-owned Punjab National Bank has sanctioned loans to over 1,600 MSMEs totalling Rs. 689 crore through its portal psbloansin59minutes.com.

The bank has offered loans to over 2.69 lakh entrepreneurs in this fiscal year under the Mudra Yojana. The government had announced the launch of the 59-minute loan portal to enable easy access to credit for MSMEs in November 2018. The portal allows MSMEs to avail loans worth up to Rs. 1 crore within 59 minutes.

MSMEs apply for loans using their GST registration as the portal is fully-integrated with IT, banks, credit bureaus as well as at the back end. It is able to then score the applicant on individual models of lenders. The SIDBI-led PSB consortium which includes other partner banks like PNB, SBI, Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Indian Bank was incubated under the Department of Financial Services (DFS) and Ministry of Finance.

Since the inception of the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, PNB has sanctioned loans to over 17 lakh accounts worth Rs. 21,000 crore until December 2018.

On Monday, PNB was trading at Rs. 85.65 per share, up 2.09 per cent on the BSE.