PNB hosts Mega MSME Outreach Programme
Kolkata,07 May(HS): Punjab National Bank, India’s second-largest public sector Bank after SBI following its recent merger with United Bank of India(UBI) and the Oriental Bank of Commerce(OBC), today addressed the mounting challenges facing the MSME sector by conducting a live nationwide webinar on “Mega MSME Outreach” in the face of COVID-19 pandemic.
An important objective of the webinar was to educate its customers across the nation about various products and services made available by the bank for their ease, senior PNB sources quoting SS Mallikarjuna Rao, MD and CEO of the Bank informed here today.
Speaking to Hindusthan Samachar over the telephone he said through a unique campaign ‘Each One Reach Ten Each Day’, more than 100,000 customers of the Bank including those from the MSME sectors were contacted during the past two weeks and informed them about several COVID19 related schemes of the Bank.
Through the online platform of Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS), MSME’s could now avail timely credits against their bills, which might help them in managing their cashflows efficiently, the sources said. In addition, the bank had communicated with a large number of MSME Associations, including those based in West Bengal who had been seeking co-operation to educate the sector under their ambit about the special schemes launched by PNB.
The webinar also informed the MSME participants about various hand-holding measures taken by the Government of India and the Reserve Bank of India side by side with the PNB.
Highlighting several other steps taken by the bank to aid existing borrowers besides giving a boost to the MSME units, the sources informed further that as the COVID-19 pandemic had posed fresh challenges for the country’s economy, causing a severely disruptive impact on both demand and supply-side elements, it could also have the potential to derail the growth of the economy in the current and coming fiscal years.
With the proactive approach of the GoI, RBI and PNB we hope that the outreach programme would go a long way towards helping the bank customers to understand the customised new product facilities, benefits and special schemes it was offering to cope up with the present crisis, the sources quoting the MD said.
Among others, PNB Executive Directors, Rajesh Kumar Yaduvanshi, Sanjay Kumar, Vijay Dube and Agyey Kumar Azad took part in the webinar which was moderated by Vinod Jain, Chairman, Banking and Insurance Committee PHD, Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
