Mumbai: Country’s largest lender SBI is in talks with the government for having a credit guarantee scheme for risky, new-age sectors, its managing director Ashwini Kumar Tewari said on Monday.
SBI also wants the inclusion of green finance in priority sector lending mandate, but the RBI and the government are averse to the idea because of the crowding-out effects on other aspects, Tewari said.
Speaking at the CII Finance Summit here, Tewari said SBI will soon be inaugurating a centre of excellence that will help not just itself but the broader universe of financiers with aspects like drafting policies on lending, assessing and pricing of risk, etc.
The CoE will focus on eight sectors, including electric vehicles, high-end solar technology, green hydrogen, green ammonia, batteries and data centre, he said. “We are telling the government to build in some guarantee schemes for the new age and riskier elements of the industry,” he said, without elaborating on the specifics been sought.
At present, there are credit guarantee schemes for dedicated sectors like the micro, small and medium enterprises, and also for startups, wherein financiers are provided with a comfort in the form of state support if a loan were to go sour.
Tewari said the CoE will be interfacing with think tanks and multilateral institutions as well, and added that the bank has signed 20 MoUs (Memorandums of Understanding) in this regard.