Indian Bank, SMERA ink pact for financing SME sector

Chennai, Jan 31 (UNI) Leading nationalised bank, Indian Bank, and SME Rating Agency of India Limited (SMERA) today formally executed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for extending cooperation to the arena of financing SME sector.

The MoU was a comprehensive arrangement, which sought to leverage the strengths of rating services of SMERA and financial services of Indian Bank for the benefit of SME customers, Indian Bank Chairman and Managing Director Sundara Rajan told newspersons here.

''This agreement will pave the way for SMERA to extend its credit rating services as an independent third party assessment of the overall condition of the SMEs, which take into account their financial position and several qualitative factors that have a bearing on their credit worthiness,'' he added.

Mr Rajan claimed that the bank was a leader in SME lending, having financed over 80,000 units with an exposure of around Rs 4,000 crore as of December 2007.

He informed that SMEs rated by SMERA would be eligible for finer rate of interest based on the rating.

SMERA CEO Rajesh Dubey highlighted the sailent features and benefits of credit rating by his company.

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