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Attribution: Labanya Prakash Jena, “Public Credit Guarantee for Small Enterprises in India: An Explainer,” ORF Issue Brief No. 469, June 2021, Observer Research Foundation.
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) play an essential role in both developed and developing economies, primarily by generating employment. In India, there were 48.8 million MSME units in 2016, collectively providing 111.4 million jobs.[1] The contribution of MSMEs to the Indian economy is 7.7 percent of the total manufacturing output and 27.4 percent of the overall service sector. MSMEs generated more than 20 percent of total jobs in 2016.[2] They have also helped expand industrialisation in rural areas, thereby reducing regional imbalances in development.[3]
In a 2019 study of the MSME sector, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)[4] identified its challenges. The key weaknesses are in the areas of infrastructure, adoption of new technologies, skill level of the workforce, access to markets and inputs, payment cycles, access to credit, and reliable capital. This brief focuses on the challenge of access to credit. Without credit, the growth of MSMEs is limited as they cannot, for example, set up a large plant that will give them economies of scale, nor can they invest in new technology to become more competitive.
Banks and debt capital markets are the two most common sources of debt financing for large corporations. For MSMEs, it is a difficult challenge to access capital from these two sources to meet their capital expenditure and working capital requirements. A 2018 report from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) suggests that mainstream financers contribute only 22 percent of the capital needs of the MSME sector; the rest are provided by other informal sources. There are several reasons for the low levels of formal credit flow to the MSME sector in India. The key barriers are related to the requirement for collateral or guarantee, the rigid lending policies of banks, high cost of borrowing due to high real or perceived risks, cumbersome procedures, and the borrower’s limited financial knowledge.
Formal lenders view MSMEs as high-risk borrowers due to high transaction costs, limited historical record, absence of a collateral market,[5] little lending relationship with borrowers,[6] and higher reserve capital requirements.
A study by the RBI[7] found that the lack of transparency in financial reporting, and non-professional business practices, are restricting MSMEs to access alternative financing sources such as private equity, venture capital, and secondary market financial instruments.[8] Moreover, another RBI study has also revealed the other constraints that keep MSMEs from being able to access formal financing: high due diligence cost,[a] asymmetric information, high non-performing assets (NPA), limited equity capital in the balance sheet, and insufficient technology adoption.[9]
Several governments, non-profit organisations, and national and multilateral development banks have developed various solutions and instruments to address the financing challenges faced by the MSME sector. These financial instruments can be broadly categorised into four categories: equity; loan; risk management instruments; and grants or technical assistance. Empirical evidence suggests that risk management instruments such as guarantees can maximise public capital use, compared to equity or loan capital.[10]
This brief examines the utility of Public Credit Guarantee Programmes (PCGPs) in a developing country like India. The use of guarantee instruments is quite extensive in global financial markets and covers various financial obligations, including loans, bonds, receivables, and swaps. The credit guarantee’s two primary goals are: strengthening the credit profile of at least one of the participants in a financial transaction; and attracting new sources of financing, thereby lowering the expectation on the banking system to deliver the capital. Several studies have found that credit enhancement provides financial aid by increasing the availability of credit and improving borrowing terms.[11] These studies examined the design issues of Public Credit Guarantee Programmes (PCGPs) in developed economies; few studies on PCGPs in developing countries like India have been conducted.
In a public credit guarantee scheme, a third party—a credit guarantee trust—plays the key role: it covers a certain percentage of risk coverage in case of default by the borrower, and in return, the credit guarantee trust charges the guarantee fee to the lender. The partial or full default risk coverage of the loan reduces the lender’s exposure to credit loss– even when there is no change in the amount of default nor even a probability of default. The credit loss risk coverage acts as default insurance for the lenders. The decrease in expected credit losses pushes the lenders to reduce the collateral loan requirements as the recoverability of the loan portfolio increases. Moreover, the scheme encourages the lender to offer credit to corporations that would otherwise not get credit without the credit guarantee. With a credit risk coverage, an MSME would get credit with preferred terms such as lower interest rate, long duration, and higher amount of loans.
Figure 1: Framework for a Public Credit Guarantee Mechanism
Credit guarantee schemes have been around since the 19th century and were accepted as a mainstream financial mechanism in the 1990s.[13] Since then, these schemes have evolved to meet the changing demands of their beneficiaries. By 2015, nearly all countries across the world had started using public guarantee schemes.[14] Their use expanded rapidly after the 2007-08 financial crisis, and during the first year of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, whose economic fallout has severely affected MSMEs.[15]
The following paragraphs outline the key features of a credit guarantee scheme. This brief uses Yale University’s Public Credit Guarantee Database to derive the key features of various PCGPs implemented around the world.[b],[16]
Credit guarantee addresses three financing challenges: information asymmetry, risk management, and collateral needs.[23]
The information asymmetry between the borrower and lender is one of the critical financing barriers for MSMEs. The companies in the MSME sector do not follow modern financial reporting and disclosure practices. Also, there is a long time-lag between the financing reporting, and the auditing of reports. As the MSMEs are mostly informal, a significant portion of the business is not reflected in their financial reports,[24] making them less reliable. This discourages banks and other mainstream financers from lending to them. Moreover, since many transactions are not reported in the financial statements, banks cannot evaluate the real creditworthiness of MSMEs. Even creditworthy projects end up being considered non-bankable.
Adverse selection problem[c] originates from information asymmetry as the lender fails to distinguish the good borrowers from those who are not. This kind of uncertainty forces banks to increase the default rate for MSME loans, and consequently, the interest rate is pegged higher, too. The cycle is vicious: the higher interest rate discourages many good borrowers from turning to mainstream financers, and their pull-out increases the MSME loan portfolio’s risk, which further increases the interest rate.[d] The high default rate makes the more prudent lenders such as banks wary of lending to MSMEs as they would want to maintain a good quality of loans in their books to minimise their non-performing assets (NPAs).
The operating and transaction costs (cost of originating loans, loan processing, and monitoring, and operation and maintenance services) in proportion to the loan value are relatively higher in MSME, given the average loan’s smaller size. The high operating and transaction cost forces lenders to increase the interest rate on small loans, thus discouraging borrowers.[25]
Traditionally, banks ask for collateral for lending as the banks can sell the collateral to recover the dues in default. However, MSMEs do not have enough collateral, and MSME proprietors are not willing to collateralise their personal properties. Additionally, MSMEs are also asked to put up a proportionately higher amount of collateral compared to large corporations. Therefore, most of the MSMEs’ loan applications do not pass the lending requirements of banks.
India started its public credit guarantee programme with the setting up of the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) in 1957. The programme was exclusively designed to offer credit insurance services to exporters. In 1971, RBI set up the Credit Guarantee Corporation of India (CGCI) to provide deposit insurance to bank depositors. Many years later, the government established the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) in 2000, the first of its kind. In 2014, the government set up the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd (NCGTC), another public credit guarantee trust, to manage and operate multiple credit guarantee funds, including for small enterprises. This section outlines the features of credit guarantee schemes managed by CGTMSE and NCGTC.
The CGTMSE credit guarantee programme was initially charging one to two percent of the loan as a guarantee fee from the lenders, depending on the size of the loan, kind of business, and borrower’s location. Since the guarantee fee structure was not based on the borrower’s creditworthiness, the member lending institution (MLI) was less concerned about the credit quality of the borrowers as the risk is tilted towards the guarantor, not the MLI. The MLI also started reporting a high level of NPAs. In 2016, CGTMSE introduced a risk-based pricing structure, which encouraged MLIs to originate quality loans and evaluate the loans properly. NCGTC’s Credit Guarantee Fund for Micro Units (CGFMU) does not have a differential guarantee fee structure. Since the guarantee fee is not risk-based, the lenders have limited incentive to originate quality loans. Moreover, this flat pricing mechanism discourages good borrowers; they do not benefit from being better creditworthy borrowers as the cost of guarantee fees is passed on to all the borrowers in a uniform manner. The COVID-19 credit guarantee programme does not have any guarantee fee as it encourages MLIs to accelerate credit flows to small enterprises if they meet the eligibility criteria.
The credit guarantee trust (CGTMSE) reviews the lender’s disbursement and recovery process; if any lapse is found, the lender is denied any reimbursement of guarantee coverage. Since the credit guarantee institutions review the lapses, they have incentives to identify lapses to delay guarantee coverage reimbursement. This process discourages the lender from offering credit to MSMEs under the CGTMSE scheme. CGTMSE takes up to 30 days to pay 75 percent of the guaranteed amount to the lender, while NCGTC takes up to 60 days to pay lenders. Chile’s FOGAPE – one of the most successful public credit guarantee schemes in the world – takes 15 days to make the full payment. The delay in the processing of payment discourages lenders from using public guarantees for lending to small enterprises.
CGTMSE and NCGTC only start reimbursing the lender after starting a legal proceeding to recover the loan – the absence of this clause would incentivise the banks to write-off the loans to claim disbursement quickly. CGTMSE pays 75 percent of the guarantee amount in the event of a default (after initiation of a legal proceeding to recover the loans); the remaining 25 percent is paid upon conclusion of the recovery proceeding. This payment mechanism mitigates the moral hazard issue as the banks’ capital is still at risk, which forces banks to recover the loan from the defaulter as much as possible. Without this condition, banks would be putting effort into recovering the loan from the defaulter.
The eligibility of borrowers is based on the company’s size, outstanding loans, and meeting the minimum legal and regulatory requirements. Before COVID-19, the scheme did not lay down any additional preconditions since the credit evaluation process is left to the lenders. This scheme’s main drawback is offering subsidised credit guarantee facilities to creditworthy borrowers who would have been able to borrow without the credit guarantee; the public guarantee programme only subsidises their financing cost.
Since CGTMSE and NCGTC do not assess loans at the individual level, there is a possibility of compromising the quality of the lenders’ loan portfolio guaranteed by CGTMSE and NCGTC. Since the risk of default is tilted towards the guarantor, the lender could take additional risks to improve its interest margin. The credit guarantor could provide certain conditions to guarantee loans, which would drive out bad borrowers from the guarantee portfolio. This will help the guarantor to minimise disbursement as the NPA of the guarantee portfolio would decrease.
The COVID-19 credit guarantee facility (managed by NCGTC) laid down additional criteria to mitigate adverse selection and moral hazard risks. The scheme offers up to 100 percent credit guarantee, collateral-free, and zero guarantee fee credit guarantee; it could create a moral hazard and credit rationing risks. The lenders would not conduct proper credit evaluation of loans as the loans are 100-percent guaranteed by the credit guarantor. NCGTC has made certain rules on the selection of borrowers to mitigate these two critical credit risks. The new borrowers, and the borrower whose loans are declared as NPA or delayed (by more than 60 days of non-payment of the loan) are not eligible to avail of this credit guarantee facility. These two conditions will not give a free hand to lenders on selecting the borrowers, thereby preventing moral hazard and credit rationing risks. As the loans are 100-percent guaranteed, the lenders do not have to bear any credit risk. Therefore, the lenders could not put sufficient effort in credit analysis of borrowers, which can lead to high default risk. However, the NCGTC has laid out clear conditions on the eligibility of borrowers; the lenders have limited discretion in selecting borrowers. This condition can prevent moral hazard and credit rationing risk to a certain extent.
CGTMSE and NCGTC have not laid down any conditions related to the eligibility of borrowers. Even the lenders who have high NPA in their books are eligible to avail the facility. The inclusion of bad lenders would increase the disbursement of the guaranteed amount to the lenders, which is not in the public credit guarantee programme’s best interest. CGTMSE and NCGTC can set down eligibility criteria for lenders as well – they could include the barring of lenders who cross a certain NPA level against eligibility for the guarantee scheme.
Over the last few decades, state-funded credit guarantee schemes have become a popular policy prescription to help MSMEs, underserved by private financial intermediaries, to access credit. However, many questions remain about how these programmes work and their impact on the market. This analysis finds that there is considerable heterogeneity in the structure and features of schemes, and that the design and architecture of the guarantee scheme also change with time. The distinct features of the credit guarantee scheme make it difficult to conduct a comparative assessment. However, this brief offers the following concluding points, which should lead to further research on the subject.
Although public intervention is required in facilitating access to financing for small enterprises, the question arises on the limit of such intervention. While social welfare and equitable distribution of credit are two primary objectives of the credit guarantee, other government interventions are serving the same purposes. It can thus be argued whether or not public guarantee programmes can address the financing challenges of small companies.
Public credit guarantee schemes are an important tool for small companies to access commercial capital. However, the success of the public credit guarantee scheme hinges on its design. The right mechanism and risk management process, as well as efficient administration, can make the scheme financially sustainable and generate positive additionalities.
Labanya Prakash Jena is a manager for Climate Finance at the Climate Policy Initiative, and a Doctoral scholar at XLRI, Jamshedpur. His primary research interests are in sustainable finance and public economics.
[a] Cost of analysing a borrower/investee before taking an lending/investment decision
[b] The database has covered 78 PCGPs across developed and developing countries. The PCGPs were implemented over 2002-2020, hence covered both stable economic cycle (before-crisis period) and unstable economic cycle (after-crisis period, which covers the credit and financial crises of 2007 and 2008, the Euro Zone crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic).
[c] Buyers and sellers have different information, e.g., about quality of a product
[1] Charan Singh and Kishinchand P. Wasdani, “Finance for Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises in India: Sources and Challenges,” ADB Institute (2016).
[2] International Financial Corporation, “Financing India’s MSMEs Estimation of Debt Requirement of MSMEs in India.”, IFC (2018).
[3] Subina Syal, “Role of MSMEs in the Growth of Indian Economy,” Global Journal of Commerce & Management Perspective, (2015).
[4] Reserve Bank of India (RBI), “ Report of the Expert Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises”, RBI2019.
[5] Jagongo Ambrose, “Venture capital (VC): the all important MSMEs financing strategy under neglect in Kenya”, International Journal of Business and Social Science, (2015).
[6] Ricardo Bebczuk, “What Determines the Access to Credit by SMEs in Argentina?”, Department of Economics Working Papers 048, Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata (2004).
[7] Reserve Bank of India, “Policy Package for Stepping Up Credit to Small and Medium Enterprises”, RBI (2005).
[8] Reserve Bank of India, “Bank Credit to MSMEs”, RBI (2019).
[9] RBI, “Policy Package for stepping Up Credit to Small and Medium Enterprises”
[10] OECD, “Infrastructure Financing Instruments and Incentives”, OECD (2020).
[11] Juan C. et al., “Public Credit Guarantees and Access to Finance,” Warwick Economics Research Paper Series, (2016).
[12] Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), “SME and Entrepreneurship Financing: The Role of Credit Guarantee Schemes and Mutual Guarantee Societies in supporting finance for small and medium-sized enterprises,” OECD (2013).
[13] Facundo Abraham & Sergio L Schmuckler, “Are public guarantee worth the hype?”, World Bank (2017).
[14] Molina et al., “The guarantee systems: keys for the implementation,” Spanish Association of Accounting and Business Administration, (2015).
[15] Program on Financial Stability, “Credit Guarantee Programs for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises,” Yale School of Management.
[16] Program on Financial Stability, “Credit Guarantee Programs for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises,” Yale School of Management.
[17] Levitsky, “Credit guarantee schemes,”
[18] Levitsky, “SME Guarantee scheme,”
[19] Gozzi & Schmukler, “Public Credit Guarantees and Access to Finance,”
[20] OECD, “SME and Entrepreneurship Financing: The Role of Credit Guarantee Schemes and Mutual Guarantee Societies in supporting finance for small and medium-sized enterprises. Final Report of the WPSMEE,” OECD (2013).
[21] World Bank, “Rethinking the Role of State in Finance. Global Financial Development Report,” World Bank (2013).
[22] Honohan, P, “Partial credit guarantees: principles and practice,” Journal of Financial Stability, (2010).
[23] Gozzi & Schmukler, “Public Credit Guarantees and Access to Finance”
[24] International Finance Corporation, “Financing India’s MSMEs Estimation of Debt Requirement of MSMEs in India,” IFC (2020).
[25] Singh“Finance for Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises in India: Sources and Challenges”
[26] Credit Guarantee Fund for Micro Units (CGFMU), National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd (NCGTC).
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Labanya Prakash Jena is Director at the Climate and Sustainability Initiative (CSI) and a visiting senior fellow at the London School of Economics and Political ...
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