PNB ENTERS INTO MOU WITH CRISIL LTD.
PSU

PNB ENTERS INTO MOU WITH CRISIL LTD.

sarkarimirror

The Punjab National Bank has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with CRISIL Limited. Under the terms of the MoU, CRISIL will help the Bank’s potential and existing SME customers to obtain credit rating.

The MoU was signed by S. S. Bhatia, General Manager, MSME, Punjab National Bank and Yogesh Dixit, Senior Director, CRISIL SME Ratings.

Punjab National Bank has a presence in 28 states, Union territory and National Capital Territory. It serves more than 72 million satisfied customers through a network of 5937 branches and more than 6050 ATMs. PNB is the largest nationalised Bank in the country in terms of Branch Network, Operating Profit, Net Profit, Net Interest Margin, Return on Assets, Savings Deposits, growth in Savings Deposits, and CASA Deposits.

The Bank chose to enter into an agreement with CRISIL since the latter has been working with the Ministry of MSME, Government of India (with NSIC Ltd. as the nodal agency) since 2005 to make affordable rating services available to the MSME sector. Punjab National Bank’s customers will enjoy a 75 per cent subsidy in the rating fee under this scheme.

Speaking on the occasion, S. S. Bhatia, General Manager said CRISIL’s SME Ratings will help the bank in taking the credit decision timely and empowers MSME customers and improves their access to funds. Timely and adequate credit is of vital importance for small and medium enterprises to grow.

Yogesh Dixit said that CRISIL’s services are available to enterprises in more than 200 locations across India, at their doorsteps. In the last eight years, CRISIL has assigned more than 45,000 ratings in the MSME sector. CRISIL has presence in more than 186 cities across India and had a large team (300 strong) of analysts to assign ratings. CRISIL SME Ratings will bring in greater levels of transparency and corporate governance, thus ensuring greater acceptability among the MSME’s customers, suppliers and investors.

The MOU is beneficial to both the parties as the ratings will help the bank in differentiation among SMEs and also in acquiring new customers. Similarly, CRISIL will have access to MSME customers of the bank.