held and the local ngos, kvic could be involved so as to appreciate the problems of the sector and flagging major issues to remove constraints / bottlenecks in financing. the performance of branch managers in dealing with the sector should be made a criterion in their performance appraisal. with increasing competition, introduction of new products and stringent regulatory environment, the role of banks needs to change from mere lenders to partners in business. there is a need for greater participation of banks in the affairs of their constituents by convergence of credit services and non credit services. the bank ’ s staff should be trained and sensitised through customised training programmes to meet the diverse needs of mses such as knowledge of markets, both domestic and global, use of technology, etc. banks should be actively providing advisory and planning services and in fact hand - holding their clients through the setting - up stage and such services should be extended to all regardless of the size of their turnover. the banks should not only provide differentiated products for msmes, but also provide counseling & guidance to new and established businesses, marketing support etc. in short, all banks, in fact, may develop innovative mechanism to provide not only finance and banking services to their msme customers but also non credit related services to them under one roof at reasonable charges. for creating transparency and wider dissemination of services provided by banks for their msme clients, it was decided in the 12th standing advisory committee on msmes that all scbs should set up a sme portal on their website, where they could put in all information / products of their bank for their mse clients, as well as information on awareness programs etc organized by them. i am sure central bank of india and other banks would have taken a step in that direction. bis central bankers ’ speeches in order to expedite sanction and disbursement of loan to msmes a single window concept could be provided by central bank of india, if not already done. loan facility to small units, say micro enterprises, should be sanctioned at the level of the branch. a centralised credit processing cell ( cpc ) for msmes could be introduced. these cells may be utilized for single point appraisal, sanction, documentation, renewal and enhancement. the arrangement is expected to help in reduction in delay and multiple queries, utilization of the available talent in an optimal fashion besides building reliable mis, developing fair practices and easier tracking. initially, the cpcs may be set up at each

, the weight on the former will be increased while the weight on the latter will be reduced. these are interesting ideas, and we will explore them in greater detail. finally, let me turn to consumer literacy and protection. as we reach more and more of the population, we have to be sure that they understand the products they are being sold and have the information to make sensible decisions. caveat emptor or let the buyer beware is typically the standard used in financial markets – that is, so long as the buyer is not actively misled, she is responsible for researching her product choices and making purchase decisions. while this puts a lot of burden on the buyer to do due diligence, it also gives her a lot of freedom to make choices, including of course the freedom to make bad choices. but with poorly informed and unsophisticated investors, we should consider the dr. nachiket mor committee ’ s recommendation of setting some guidelines on what products are suitable for different categories of investors. broadly speaking, the more complicated the product the more sophisticated should be the target customer. should we move to a norm where a suite of simple products is pre - approved for dissemination to all, but as products get more complicated, financial sector providers bear more and more responsibility to show that the buyer was sophisticated and / or appropriately counseled before she purchased the product? of course, the longer run answer is for customers to become more savvy. can the technology sector help educate people in financial matters? after all, finance is not something most people learn in schools, but it is something they encounter every day in the world. low cost but high quality distance finance education is something the country very much needs and we look to entrepreneurs here to think of innovative ways to provide it. before i conclude, one caveat. technology can magnify the reach of finance for bad purposes as well as good. many of you must receive frequent emails, purportedly from me, informing you of a large sum of money that awaits you at the rbi, and urging you to send me bis central bankers ’ speeches your account details so that i can transfer the money to you. let me assure you that the rbi does not give out money, i do not send these emails, and if you do fall for such emails, you will lose a lot of money to crooks and be reminded of the adage – if anything looks too good to be true, it probably is not true.