State bank of India (SBI) is set to invest around thousand crore rupees on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). The country’s largest lender leverage its YONO platform to set up a business-business (B2B)e-commerce marketplace for MSMEs.YONO is currently used to hawk its products and also as an e-commerce platform. Soon it is expecting regulatory clearances to come through as B2B marketplace is not going to earn the revenue.

“We are engaging the MSME ministry to create a marketplace for SBI customers to sell their products, called Bharath Craft which is going to be an e-commerce and technology driven platform. It is in the initial stage of taking shape.” said SBI Managing Director Challa Sreenivasulu Setty.Alibaba and Alipay models are being relied by the SBI to design this platform for MSMEs,according to sources. Transactions and payments are expected to be routed through these models.

Among the existing banks, HDFC bankhas an e-commerce platform SmartBuy. HDFC provide a marketplace for merchants who in turn offers discounts to HDFC’s customers.

As of now, with government’s guarantee lenders have sanctioned loans around one lakh crore rupees.If the three lakh crore limit was exhausted then a fresh look at the industry’s need have to be taken said Sidbi deputy managing director V S V Rao.