Yes Bank to offer MSMEs up to Rs 3-crore loan through unique surrogate lending model

Easing working capital woes for India’s burgeoning MSME sector, private sector lender Yes Bank is offering secured working capital loan between Rs 1-3 crore in the form of overdraft, letter of credit, and financial bank guarantees. The bank has launched a programme called Smart Edge for MSMEs — a “first-of-its-kind surrogate lending model,” the company said in a statement, wherein that the businesses wouldn’t have to provide any financial statements even as credit appraisal would be done according to the data-points from GST returns and operative bank accounts of MSMEs.

Moreover, the programme would have a ‘scorecard’ running in the background to analyze credit indicators from both GST returns and operative bank accounts and will also factor in the interplay between the two. Based on the score that scorecard gives, the bank would ascertain the collateral cover requirement that will start from 85 per cent. The “Smart Edge programme will enable simple and faster processing of credit for our customers,” said Rajan Pental, Senior Group President and Head, Branch and Retail Banking, YES Bank. MSMEs can apply for the programme through any of its branches.

MSMEs would have to furnish their GST returns and operative bank account statements for the last 12 months for assessment along with KYC document for the programme. Collateral acceptable to the bank will be taken as security for the loan, the bank said.

YES Bank had also launched a YES GST programme last year to help small business understand how the new GST system would impact them and to prepare them to migrate to it. The bank, earlier this year, did a five-month survey covering more than 2,700 MSMEs across 20 industries in India to analyse the impact of digitization on Indian MSMEs. The survey highlighted that more than 60 per cent of MSME respondents were digital users but only 5 per cent had fully embraced digital technology. Also, a lack of know-how and skilled manpower were the major challenges MSMEs facing increasing digital adoption.

Yes Bank