New Delhi, Mar 11 (KNN) Loans worth Rs 689 crore has been sanctioned to over 1,600 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) by state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) through the www.psbloansin59minutes.com portal  as part of its effort to promote such industries.

Under the Mudra Yojana, the bank has offered loan to over 2.69 lakh small entrepreneurs this fiscal (till February 14, 2019).

MSMEs through this portal can avail loans of up to Rs 1 crore in 59 minutes or less than an hour. MSMEs apply for loans using their GST registration as the portal is integrated with GST server at the back-end as well as IT, credit bureaus and banks. It is able to quickly score the applicant on individual models of lenders (currently only public sector banks).

"In November 2018, Hon'ble Prime Minister announced the launch of the 59 minute loan portal to enable easy access to credit for MSMEs. Under this initiative, the bank has sanctioned loans to over 1,600 accounts with total sanctioned amount of Rs 689 crore (till February end)," PNB managing director Sunil Mehta said.

According to the media reports, "In the current financial year, the bank has offered the loan to over 2.69 lakh accounts with total amount sanctioned being 5,290 crore till February 14, 2019. The scheme has helped millions of small enterprises in the country and will continue to do so, in the coming years. The bank has exceeded the government targets under Mudra scheme and has provided additional working capital limit to MSMEs," he said.

It is a strategic initiative of SIDBI led PSB consortium incubated under the Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance. Other partner banks are the SBI, Bank of Baroda, PNB, Vijaya and Indian Bank. (KNN/JM)