New Delhi, June 8 (KNN) The Ratnakar Bank Limited (RBL) has registered new numbers in terms of its lending to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).

The Kolhapur headquartered bank has extended loans amounting to 444 crore rupees this year which is much more than the previous lending figure of 143 crore rupees.

Also the number of clients getting associated with the bank has quadrupled this year.

In a press interview Harjeet Toor of the Retail and MSME Lending and Financial Inclusion at the RBL bank said that the bank intends to focus on the under=served markets, MSME sector being one of them.

He further acknowledged that the credit flow to the MSME sector have been a challenge, and his bank intends to address this concern.

Commenting upon the financial inclusion initiatives, Toor informed that the bank is spread across thirteen states via ten banking correspondents. In this year the bank extended services to over 14 lakh customers with book size of more than 2000 crores.

Considering the stress that existed during the times of demonetization, almost 15 per cent of the micro-finance loans for the industry suffered stress during the demonetization phase. This amounted for around 15,000 crore rupees. He informed that his bank customers were also affected by the ongoing market stress. Despite this the bank was able to achieve good number in lending to the sector. (KNN/ DA)