Coimbatore, Feb 15 (KNN) The Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) will increase its lending to the Micro, Small and Medium sector from the present Rs 31,000 crore to Rs 50,000 crore in the coming years.

Speaking to media persons here on Friday, IOB managing director and CEO Karnam Sekar said that the bank has already converted 250 branches, including 100 in Tamil Nadu, into MSME-centric branches and given training to 700 employees for the purpose.

''Through its outreach programme, the bank officials are meeting the industrialists in the sector to know about the problems being faced by them,'' he added.

He also stated that once the suggestions, the feedback are received, the bank will place it before the Board of the bank to frame a policy to increase the MSME portfolio to Rs 50,000 crore, which could be in one year to 24 months.

Commenting on the loan restructuring, he asserted that since the Reserve Bank of India had announced an one-time loan restructuring scheme for the MSMEs and so far Rs 3000 crore to Rs 4000 crore had been restructured.

''By the end of this month, more accounts that were in need of restructuring would also be covered. Restructuring is a win-win proposal for the bank and the client,'' he added.

Stating that the gross NPA has been brought down to 17.12 per cent at the end of December as compared to 23.76 per cent last fiscal, he said that due to provision made during the quarter, the net NPA ratio improved to 5.81 per cent, which is less than 6 per cent prescribed by RBI.

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