Bank of Baroda is partnering with online marketplace Snapdeal to provide some 3 lakh sellers on the platform with collateral free working capital loans to scale up and grow t heir businesses. Under this arrangement, the sellers can apply for loans through Snapdeal’s Capital Assist platform online and get immediate sanction, thereby enabling loans at the click of a button. A specialized centralized eCommerce cell, SMe-Paisa will be set up in the bank’s corporate office in Mumbai for processing the loan applications. Initially, loans ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 25 lakhs will be disbursed based on the sellers’ track record with Snapdeal and will be extended in the future depending on satisfactory performance. The process of SMe-Paisa will be completely digitized from application to sanction to disbursement. P.S. Jayakumar, MD & CEO of the bank, said SMe-Paisa marks the bank’s foray into algo based lending and the bank is extremely excited to partner with Snapdeal for this one of its kind initiative.
The bank also entered into a landmark MoU with PSG College of Arts and Science, a leading educational institution in Tamil Nadu under the PSG Son’s Charities. The objective is to increase productivity of farmers, efficient management of the natural resources and its better realization in farm, value addition to food and food products, use of technology for horticulture and floriculture through research in niche areas of agriculture and agro product development with an ultimate aim of improving the reach of technologies to the farmers at an affordable cost and benefit. The areas of research would focus on organic farming, contract farming, micro irrigation, green house cultivation, food processing technology and improved cold storage and logistics solution.
