HDFC Bank’s MSME book grows 30% to cross Rs. 2 lakh crore

HDFC Bank’s MSME book grew 30% year-on-year to cross the Rs. 2-lakh-crore-mark as of December-end. It has been mainly boosted by the pandemic-induced Emergency Credit Line Guarantee (ECLG) Scheme under which it disbursed over Rs. 23,000 crore.

As per the bank, the growth is also driven by a renewed push towards customers in semi-urban and rural areas. In December 2019, the bank’s MSME book stood at Rs. 1.4 lakh crore. This grew by over 60,000 crore, or 30%, to Rs. 2,01,758 crore by the December, 2020 quarter, providing it a 10.6% share system-wide MSME lending. Thus, it became the second-largest lender in this segment after State Bank of India.

Sumant Rampal, Senior Executive Vice-President, Business Banking and Healthcare Finance, remarked, “Our MSME lending is back to pre-pandemic levels, with loan book growing at 30%  year-on to Rs. 2,01,758 crore as of December, 2020 quarter.”

“While the ECLG scheme was the biggest driver, boosting the loan book by Rs. 23,000 crore disbursed to around 1,10,000 MSME customers, our own renewed push towards customers in semi-urban and rural areas also helped us during the pandemic, leading to an incremental loan growth of over Rs. 60,000 crore”,  he added.