The country’s largest lender, State Bank of India has launched an FAQ section on its website on the loan restructuring scheme under the resolution plan announced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the COVID-19 pandemic-hit loans.
Also, the bank has also launched an online portal where customers can check eligibility for the restructuring plan. Customers, however, will have to approach SBI branches for to complete the process, the bank said.
SBI’s retail customers upon logging in the portal will be asked to key in their account number. After completion of OTP validation and inputting a few necessary information, customers will come to know their eligibility and receive a reference number. This reference number will be valid for 30 days and within those 30 days customers can visit the branch to complete the required formalities.
The restructuring process will be complete after verification of documents and execution of simple documents at branch/CPC.
According to SBI Managing director CS Shetty, around 3,500 retail customers have accessed the website, of whom 111 were eligible for restructuring, CNBC TV 18 reported.
According to Shetty, borrowers who will avail the scheme will be charged 0.35 per cent more than other customers, the TV channel reported.
Setty expressed hope that with the launch of this portal, the customers will find it operationally convenient to check their eligibility before they go to a branch.
The RBI had appointed a panel under KV Kamath to finalise the financial parameters of the scheme. The panel identified 26 sectors and submitted the detailed criteria to implement the scheme.
Under the scheme, banks can offer loan moratorium for up to two years.
Under this resolution framework framed by the RBI, such borrowers are eligible whose loan accounts were classified as standard and not default for equal to or more than 30 days as on March 1, 2020, and their incomes are impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The approval of borrowers’ loan restructuring application under this scheme - which is going to be governed by the RBI guidelines - would be conveyed to them by the SBI branch/CPC.