Micro finance industry slowly overcoming COVID crisis: Industry body
The country-wide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenge for the microfinance industry (MFI) sector, but it is slowly tiding over the crisis now, an official said on Wednesday.
By : migrator
Update: 2020-09-23 13:28 GMT
Kolkata
"The MFIs are now slowly overcoming the challenge by keeping in touch and hand-holding customers to wade through the difficult times," an official of the Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) said.
The complete stoppage of micro-finance operations from March-end to May due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown had been a big setback, he said.
He said although the MFIs provided moratorium to customers as per RBI guidelines, they were not extended the same by some lenders.
"This caused a double squeeze. However, policy support in the form of TLTRO (targeted long-term repo operations) and special liquidity facility by the apex bank helped MFIs overcome the difficult period," the official said.
The aggregate gross loan portfolio of NBFC-MFIs contracted three per cent in June as compared to March, the industry body said.
It added that in the first quarter of the current fiscal, NBFC-MFIs disbursed loans amounting to Rs 570 crore as against Rs 15,865 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.
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