'Digitalisation has helped boost farm, MSME lending'

MUMBAI: SBI chairman C S Setty said that several initiatives taken by govt to formalise the MSME and agriculture sectors through digitalisation have enabled banks to lend to these segments. He noted that digitalisation has transformed these areas, allowing banks to develop innovative models that expand formal credit access to previously underserved sectors.

Setty was speaking at the 77th AGM of Indian Banks' Association (IBA) on Sunday. The session was presided over by IBA chairman and Central Bank of India MD & CEO M V Rao, IBA chief executive Atul Kumar Goel. M Nagaraju, financial services secretary was the chief guest.

Nagaraju said that banks have shown strong performance over the last three years, including in the past three quarters of the current fiscal. "Each bank also needs to identify its focus on building capacity and planning road maps for appropriate and timely capital raising and efficient allocation of resources besides striving to bring down inter-mediation costs," he said.

In his address Setty said that banks play a critical role in financial inter-mediation and nation-building. He called upon IBA to facilitate the exchange of information from global institutions and agencies, share best practices, and create a pool of experts to support financial institutions.

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