IOB focuses on MSME, to lend more in two years: Official

Coimbatore, Feb 14 (): Laying more focus on MSMEsegment, the Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) would increase itslending to the sector from the present Rs 31,000 crore toRs 50,000 crore in a couple of years from now, a top officialof the bank said on Friday.

To focus on the MSME, which is the need of the hour,the bank has converted 250 branches, including 100 in TamilNadu, into MSME-centric branches and given training to 700employees for the purpose, IOB managing director and CEOKarnam Sekar told reporters here.

Through its outreach programme, the bank officialsare meeting the industrialists in the sector to know about theproblems being faced by them, he said.

After getting the suggestions, the feedback would beplaced before the Board of the bank to frame a policy toincrease the MSME portfolio to Rs 50,000 crore, which could bein one year to 24 months, Sekar said.

On performance, the bank, which was in the red forthe last four-and-a-half years and making loss in the lasteight quarters, is hopeful of making profit in the fourthquarter of current financial year, he said.

In the third quarter ended December 2019, IOBreported a net loss of Rs 6,075 crore as against a net loss ofRs 346 crore during the corresponding quarters in the previousyear on account of higher provisioning of Rs 6,664 crore madefor bad debts, Sekar said.

Stating that the gross NPA has been brought down to17.12 per cent at the end of December as compared to 23.76 percent last fiscal, he said that due to provision made duringthe quarter, the net NPA ratio improved to 5.81 per cent,which is less than 6 per cent prescribed by RBI. NVMNVG NVG