‘SME loans: Pvt banks, NBFCs eat into PSBs’ market share’

State-run banks’ market share in loans to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), a major thrust area for the government, has dipped on aggressive play by private sector banks and NBFCs, a report said on Monday.

The share of the 21 public sector banks (PSBs) has fallen to 50.7 per cent as of June 2018, from 55.8 per cent in June 2017 and 59.4 per cent in June 2016, a quarterly report by Transunion Cibil and Sidbi has said. The overall credit to the MSME segment grew 16.1 per cent for the year to June 2018, it said, adding PSBs reported a 5.5 per cent growth, compared with 23.4 per cent for the private sector banks.

A total of 11 PSBs are under the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) prompt corrective action (PCA) framework because of earning pressures and networth concerns, which puts restrictions on lending. The share of private sector banks has grown to 29.9 per cent in June 2018, against the 28.1 per cent in the same month last year, while the same for non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) has grown up to 11.3 per cent from 9.6 per cent, according to the report. Despite the aggressive growth, private sector banks and NBFCs fare better on asset quality as well, it said. The PSBs’ non-performing assets (NPAs) from the MSME book increased to 15.2 per cent from the year ago’s 14.5 per cent, while in case of private sector banks, the ratio decreased marginally to 3.9 per cent from 4 per cent. There has been an increase in the turn-around times (TAT) for loan processing across all the three segments of lenders with the NBFCs being the fastest, the report said, adding that it takes an average of 26 days for a MSME to avail credit from the date of inquiry.

The NBFCs’ TAT has come down to 18 days from the 24 days two years ago, while the same for PSBs is down to 31 days from 41 days earlier. Private sector banks process loans in an average of 29 days now as against 32 days two years ago.