New Delhi, Mar 3 (KNN) Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), the principal financial institution engaged in the promotion, financing and development of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Stock Exchange (NSE) for co-operation in various ongoing MSME related initiatives of the two institutions and also exploring the feasibility of a debt capital market platform for MSMEs.

Speaking on the MoU, V Satya Venkata Rao, Deputy Managing Director of SIDBI said, “Keeping in view the very large and diversified MSME sector in the country, there is a continuous need for various institutions to co-ordinate and co-operate with each other for the benefit of the MSME sector. Both the institutions run several programs for MSMEs, and the co-operation will help increase the impact and reach of these programs.”

Rao also mentioned that expert committee on MSMEs, headed by U K Sinha has made several recommendations for the MSME sector including a need to develop additional instruments for debt and equity which will help crystallize new sources of funding for MSMEs and in this regard, SIDBI will look forward to jointly work with NSE to explore feasibility of a debt platform for unmet needs of the sector.  

MD & CEO of NSE, Shri Vikram Limaye said, “NSE has always fostered use of innovation and technology for the benefit of Indian industry and investors. We are already committed to the MSME sector and one of the major initiatives has been the SME Exchange and NSE has jointly worked with SIDBI on the Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) project undertaken by Receivable Exchange of India Ltd (RXIL) to solve the receivable problems faced by small businesses.''

''We will be happy to work with SIDBI for exploring the feasibility of a debt capital platform for MSMEs and based on the market feedback we will plan the next steps,” he added.