After the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) issue, the Indian Banks Association (IBA) has begun working with banks to meet the funding needs of entrepreneurs.
Following the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) crisis, the Indian Banks Association (IBA) began collaborating with banks to meet the funding needs of startups. According to a top executive, the association’s inaugural meeting on Tuesday focused on measures to enhance the banking industry’s outreach programme for entrepreneurs.
This comes after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met with public sector banks to assess their performance on different financial metrics in the face of global uncertainty.
Sitharaman also encouraged public sector banks to keep an eye on global events and take precautions against financial shocks at the meeting.
Early in March, it was reported that Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and ICICI Bank, together with the Indian subsidiary of HSBC, had formed special teams to assist companies hit by the Silicon Valley Bank issue and create new dollar accounts in Gandhinagar, Gujarat’s Gift City.
With the easing of the transaction hold at SVB, the lenders have formed dedicated teams to help entrepreneurs in shifting cash to their Gift City locations. ICICI Bank has also stated that it has formed a specialised staff to assist entrepreneurs in transferring cash from SVB.
IBA is exploring a unified outreach programme for banks to reach out to startups by establishing nodal banks, appointing nodal personnel, and establishing a platform where banks and clients may meet. Banks are considering delivering services such as transaction banking, tax consulting, and so on.
The majority of firms affected by the SVB issue are Indian software-as-a-service startups with a substantial customer base in the US, as well as those supported by Y Combinator (a US accelerator).
