Prudential Regulations For Small and Medium Enterprises Financing
Prudential Regulations For Small and Medium Enterprises Financing
PART-A Definitions. 7
PART-B Regulations. 12
Annexures         -                                               20-32
                                   PREFACE
Keeping in view the important role of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in
the economic development of Pakistan and to facilitate and encourage the flow of
bank credit to this sector, a separate set of Prudential Regulations specifically for
SME sector is being issued by State Bank of Pakistan. It is expected that this
separate set of regulations, specifically tailored for SMEs, shall encourage banks /
DFIs to develop new financing techniques and innovative products which can
meet the financial requirements of SMEs and provide a viable and growing
lending outlet for banks / DFIs.
Banks / DFIs should recognize that success in SME lending requires much more
extensive involvement with the SMEs than the traditional lender-borrower
relationship envisages. The banks / DFIs are, thus, encouraged to work in close
association with SMEs. The banks / DFIs should assist and guide the SMEs to
develop appropriate systems and effectively manage their resources and risks.
State Bank of Pakistan encourages banks / DFIs to lend to SMEs on the basis of
assets conversion cycle and future cash flows. A problem, which the banks / DFIs
may encounter in this respect, is the lack of adequate information. In order to
overcome this problem, banks / DFIs may also like to prepare general industry
cash flows and then adjust those cash flows for the specific borrowers keeping in
view their conditions and other factors involved.
Banks / DFIs should realize that delay in processing the cases might frustrate the
SMEs. Banks / DFIs are therefore encouraged to process the loan cases
expeditiously and convey the decision to the SME borrowers as early as possible
In order to encourage close coordination of the officials of the banks / DFIs and
SMEs, the banks / DFIs may require the concerned dealing officer to regularly
visit the borrower. For this purpose, at a minimum, the dealing officer may be
required to pay at least one quarterly visit and document the state of affairs of the
SME. In addition, an officer senior to the ones conducting these regular visits
may also visit the SME at least once in a year. The banks may, at their own
discretion, correlate the frequency of visits with their total exposure to the SME
borrower.
State Bank of Pakistan will closely monitor the situation on an ongoing basis and
work proactively with banks / DFIs to make SME financing a success. During this
process, we will keep on reviewing regulatory framework to ensure that any
impediment is immediately removed while ensuring that banks / DFIs observe due
prudence and necessary oversight.
2.   Borrower means a SME on which a bank / DFI has taken any exposure
     during the course of business.
3.   Corporate Card means credit card issued to the employees of a SME where
     the repayment is to be made by the said SME.
7.   Equity of the Bank / DFI means Tier-I Capital or Core Capital and includes
     paid-up capital, general reserves, balance in share premium account,
     reserve for issue of bonus shares and retained earnings / accumulated
     losses as disclosed in latest annual audited financial statements. In case of
     branches of foreign banks operating in Pakistan, equity will mean capital
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     maintained, free of losses and provisions, under Section 13 of the Banking
     Companies Ordinance, 1962.
     The Preference Shares, only with the following features, will also be included
     in the equity of the borrower:
     Revaluation reserves will remain part of the equity for first three years only,
     from the date of asset revaluation, during which time the borrower will
     strengthen its equity base to enable it to avail facilities without the benefit of
     revaluation reserves. However, if a borrower gets revaluation during the
     three years period, the borrower will be allowed the benefit from fresh
     revaluation, to the extent of increase in revaluation reserves, but restricting
     the benefit of such incremental value to 3 years only. Similarly, if after
     3 years, the borrower again gets revaluation of the assets with resultant
     addition in their value, the benefit of such revaluation may also be allowed
     for the next 3 years, again to the extent of increase in revaluation reserves.
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9.    Exposure means financing facilities whether fund based and / or non-fund
      based and include:
10.   Forced Sale Value (FSV) means the value which fully reflects the possibility
      of price fluctuations and can currently be obtained by selling the mortgaged /
      pledged assets in a forced / distressed sale conditions.
11.   Government Securities shall include such types of Pak. Rupee obligations of
      the Federal Government or a Provincial Government or of a Corporation
      wholly owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by the Federal Government
      or a Provincial Government and guaranteed by the Federal Government as
      the Federal Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare,
      to the extent determined from time to time, to be Government Securities.
12.   Group mean persons, whether natural or juridical, if one of them or his
      dependent family members or its subsidiary, have control or hold substantial
      ownership interest or have power to exercise significant influence over the
      other or are financially interdependent on each other. For the purpose of this:
      (a)   Subsidiary will have the same meaning as defined in sub-section 3(2)
            of the Companies Ordinance, 1984 i.e. a company or a body corporate
            shall deemed to be a subsidiary of another company if that other
            company or body corporate directly or indirectly controls, beneficially
            owns or holds more than 50% of its voting securities or otherwise has
            power to elect and appoint more than 50% of its directors.
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      (b)   Control   refers to an ownership directly or indirectly through
            subsidiaries, of more than one half of voting power of an enterprise.
      (c)   Substantial ownership / affiliation means beneficial share holding of
            10% (5% for banking companies / DFIs) by a person and/or by his
            dependent family members. However, shareholding in the Government
            owned entities will not constitute substantial ownership / affiliation for
            this purpose. Resultantly, neither the Government owned entities will
            be considered as group concern of a corporate group / company /
            individual holding 10% or more shareholding in these Government
            entities nor the shareholding in the Government entities will be
            construed to form any group.
      (d)   Significant influence refers to the management control of the
            company, to participate in financial and operating policies, either
            exercised by representation in the Board of Directors, partnership or by
            statute / agreement in the policy making process or affiliation or
            material inter-company transactions.
13.   Liquid Assets are the assets which are readily convertible into cash without
      recourse to a court of law and mean encashment / realizable value of
      government securities, bank deposits, certificates of deposit, shares of listed
      companies which are actively traded on the stock exchange, NIT Units,
      certificates of mutual funds, Certificates of Investment (COIs) issued by DFIs
      / NBFCs rated at least ‘A’ by a credit rating agency on the approved panel of
      State Bank of Pakistan, listed TFCs rated at least ‘A’ by a credit rating
      agency on the approved panel of State Bank of Pakistan and certificates of
      asset management companies for which there is a book maker quoting daily
      offer and bid rates and there is active secondary market trading. These
      assets with appropriate margins should be in possession of the banks / DFIs
      with perfected lien.
14.   Medium and Long Term Facilities mean facilities with maturities of more
      than one year and Short Term Facilities mean facilities with maturities up to
      one year.
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16.   Other Form of Security       means hypothecation of stock (inventory),
      assignment of receivables, lease rentals, contract receivables, etc.
18.   Readily Realizable Assets mean and include liquid assets and stocks
      pledged to the banks / DFIs in possession, with ‘perfected lien’ duly
      supported with complete documentation.
19.   Secured means exposure backed by tangible security and any other form of
      security with appropriate margins (in cases where margin has been
      prescribed by State Bank, appropriate margin shall at least be equal to the
      prescribed margin). Exposure without any security or collateral is defined as
      clean.
21.   Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) means an entity, ideally not a public
      limited company, which does not employ more than 250 persons (if it is
      manufacturing / service concern) and 50 persons (if it is trading concern)
      and also fulfills the following criteria of either ‘a’ and ‘c’ or ‘b’ and ‘c’ as
      relevant:
      (a)   A trading / service concern with total assets at cost excluding land and
            building upto Rs 50 million.
      (b)   A manufacturing concern with total assets at cost excluding land and
            building upto Rs 100 million.
      (c)   Any concern (trading, service or manufacturing) with net sales not
            exceeding Rs 300 million as per latest financial statements.
22.   Tangible Security means readily realizable assets (as defined in these
      Prudential Regulations), mortgage of land, plant, building, machinery and
      any other fixed assets.
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                                 PART – B
                              REGULATIONS
REGULATION R-1
SOURCE AND CAPACITY OF REPAYMENT
AND CASH FLOW BACKED LENDING
2.      The rationale and parameters used to project the future cash flows shall be
documented and annexed with the cash flow analysis undertaken by the bank /
DFI. It is recognized that a large number of SMEs will not be able to prepare
future cash flows due to lack of sophistication and financial expertise. It is
expected that in such cases banks / DFIs shall assist the borrowers in obtaining
the required information and no SME shall be declined access to credit merely on
this ground.
REGULATION R-2
PERSONAL GUARANTEES
        All facilities, except those secured against liquid assets, extended to SMEs
shall be backed by the personal guarantees of the owners of the SMEs. In case of
limited companies, guarantees of all directors other than nominee directors shall
be obtained.
REGULATION R-3
LIMIT ON CLEAN FACILITIES
        In order to encourage cash flow based lending, banks / DFIs are allowed to
take clean exposure, i.e., facilities secured solely against personal guarantees, on
a SME up to Rs 3 million provided that funded exposure should not exceed
Rs 2 million. Before taking clean exposure, banks / DFIs shall obtain a declaration
from the SME that it has not availed clean facilities from any other bank/DFI to
ensure that the accumulated clean exposure of banks / DFIs on a SME does not
exceed the prescribed limit mentioned above.
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REGULATION R-4
SECURITIES
REGULATION R-5
MARGIN REQUIREMENTS
3.      State Bank of Pakistan shall continue to exercise its powers for fixation /
reinstatement of margin requirements on financing facilities being provided by
banks/DFIs for various purposes including Import Letter of Credit on a particular
item(s), as and when required.
REGULATION R-6
PER PARTY EXPOSURE LIMIT
          The maximum exposure of a bank / DFI on a single SME shall not exceed
Rs 75 million. The total facilities (including leased assets) availed by a single SME
from the financial institutions should not exceed Rs 150 million provided that the
facilities excluding leased assets shall not exceed Rs 100 million. It is expected
that SMEs approaching this limit should have achieved certain sophistication as
they migrate into larger firms and should be able to meet the requirements of
Prudential Regulations for Corporate / Commercial Banking.
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REGULATION R-7
AGGREGATE EXPOSURE OF A BANK / DFI ON SME SECTOR
         The aggregate exposure of a bank / DFI on SME sector shall not exceed
the limits as specified below:
 PERCENTAGE OF CLASSIFIED SMEs ADVANCES TO                    MAXIMUM LIMIT
     TOTAL PORTFOLIO OF SMEs ADVANCES
     a.   Below 5%                                    No limit
     b.   Below 10%                                   3 times of the equity
     c.   Below 15%                                   2 times of the equity
     d.   Upto and Above 15%                          Upto the equity
REGULATION R-8
MINIMUM CONDITIONS FOR TAKING EXPOSURE
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4.      Banks / DFIs shall not approve and / or provide any exposure (including
renewal, enhancement and rescheduling / restructuring) until and unless the Loan
Application Form (LAF) prescribed by the banks / DFIs is accompanied by a
‘Borrower’s Basic Fact Sheet’ under the seal and signature of the borrower as per
approved format of the State Bank of Pakistan (Annexure-I for SMEs other than
individuals and Annexure-II for individual borrowers).
REGULATION R-9
PROPER UTILIZATION OF LOAN
       The banks / DFIs should ensure that the loans have been properly utilized
by the SMEs and for the same purposes for which they were acquired / obtained.
The banks / DFIs should develop and implement an appropriate system for
monitoring the utilization of loans.
REGULATION R-10
RESTRICTION ON FACILITIES TO RELATED PARTIES
         The bank / DFI shall not take any exposure on a SME in which any of its
director, major shareholder holding 5% or more of the share capital of the bank /
DFI, its Chief Executive or an employee or any family member of these persons is
interested.
R-11
CLASSIFICATION AND PROVISIONING FOR ASSETS
LOANS / ADVANCES
        Banks / DFIs shall observe the prudential guidelines given at Annexure-III
in the matter of classification of their SME asset portfolio and provisioning there-
against.
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(excluding grace period, if any) from the date of such rescheduling / restructuring
and at least 10% of the outstanding amount is recovered in cash. Further, the
unrealized mark-up on such loans (declassified after rescheduling / restructuring)
shall not be taken to income account unless at least 50% of the amount is realized
in cash. However, this will not impact the de-classification of this account if all
other criteria (meeting the terms and conditions for at least for one year and
payment of at least 10% of outstanding amount by the borrower) are met.
Accordingly, banks / DFIs are directed to ensure that status of classification, as
well as provisioning, is not changed in relevant reports to the State Bank of
Pakistan merely because a loan has been rescheduled or restructured. However,
while reporting to the Credit Information Bureau (CIB) of State Bank of Pakistan,
such loans / advances may be shown as ‘rescheduled / restructured’ instead of
‘default’.
All fresh loans granted by the banks / DFIs to a party after rescheduling /
restructuring of its existing facilities may be monitored separately, and will be
subject to classification under this Regulation on the strength of their own specific
terms and conditions.
4.      Banks / DFIs shall classify their loans / advances portfolio and make
provisions in accordance with the criteria prescribed above. Moreover, where
banks / DFIs wish to avail the benefit of collateral held against loans / advances,
they can consider the value, determined in accordance with the guidelines laid
down in Annexure-IV, of assets mortgaged / pledged with them, for deduction from
the outstanding principal amount of loan / advance against which such assets are
mortgaged / pledged, before making any provision. The value of the mortgaged /
pledged assets, other than liquid assets, to be considered for this purpose shall be
the forced sale value. Further, Forced Sale Value (FSV) once determined, shall
remain valid for three years from the date of valuation during which period the
underlying collateral will not be revalued for provisioning purpose. The adjustment
factors of 80%, 70% and 50% shall be applied on the value so determined for the
purpose of determining provisioning requirement in 1st , 2nd and 3rd year of
valuation, respectively. Thereafter, the assets shall be revalued and the
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adjustment factor of 50% shall be applied for all subsequent years. However, the
FSV of the collateral shall be restricted to fresh revaluation or previous value,
whichever is less. All valuations conducted during the years 2002 & 2003 shall
also be considered 1st year valuations only for the application of adjustment factors
referred to above. However, after completion of three years, from the date of last
valuation, such assets will also have to be revalued.
For loans which are classified after the issuance of these Prudential Regulations,
the benefit will be available for a period of three years going forward up to 80%,
70% & 50% of the FSV for the years 1, 2 & 3 respectively. From year 4, the
benefit for provisioning purposes will then remain at 50% of either the previous
FSV or the fresh valuation whichever is less. As for loans which are already
classified as of the date of issuance of these Prudential Regulation, the banks /
DFIs may take benefit of FSV of collateral for the year ended 2003, in accordance
with the previous guidelines on the subject. From year 2004, FSVs will be subject
to the adjustment factors of 80%, 70% & 50% in 1, 2 & 3 years respectively and
then remain at 50% in subsequent years.
To illustrate this new requirement, two scenarios are presented below. Scenario-1
shows the treatment of an existing classified loan and Scenario-2 shows the
treatment for an existing satisfactory category loan which becomes classified after
the issuance of these Prudential Regulations.
Scenario-1: The collateral has been evaluated in the year 2003 and FSV has been
worked out as Rs 300 million. FSV of the collateral has been revalued in the years
2006 & 2009 at Rs 400 million and Rs 450 million respectively, when revaluation is
required to be done after completion of three years, if a bank / DFI wishes to avail
the benefit of FSV for the purposes of provisioning.
              YEAR                  2003          2004       2005      2006        2007   2008   2009
 FSV (in Million)                   300          300         300
 Adjustment Factors                None *       80% **       70%
 Benefit for Provisioning           300          240         210
 FSV (Revalued)                                                         400
 Value taken ***                                                        300        300    300
 Adjustment Factors                                                     50%        50%    50%
 Benefit for Provisioning                                               150        150    150
 FSV (Revalued)                                                                                   450
 Value taken ***                                                                                  300
 Adjustment Factors                                                                               50%
 Benefit for Provisioning                                                                        150
*     In accordance with the previous guidelines on the subject.
***   Valuations conducted during the year 2002 and 2003 will be considered
      1st year valuations for the purposes of application of adjustment factors.
**    Fresh FSV after three years or previous FSV, whichever is lower.
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Scenario-2: When the property has been evaluated after the year 2004, say in
year 2005 and FSV is Rs 200 million and revalued FSV in year 2008 is
Rs 250 million. The benefit of the provisioning would be available in the following
manner:
SUBMISSION OF RETURNS:
6.       Banks / DFIs shall submit the borrower-wise annual statements regarding
classified loans / advances to the Banking Inspection Department.
REVERSAL OF PROVISION:
8.      In case of cash recovery, other than rescheduling / restructuring, banks /
DFIs may reverse specific provision held against classified assets, subject to the
following:
        i) In case of Loss account, reversal may be made to the extent that the
             remaining outstanding amount of the classified asset is covered by
             minimum 100% provision.
        ii) In case of Doubtful account, reversal may be made to the extent that
             the remaining outstanding amount of the classified asset is covered by
             minimum 50% provision.
        iii) In case of Substandard account, reversal may be made to the extent
             that the remaining outstanding amount of the classified asset is
             covered by minimum 20% provision.
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Further, the provision made on the advice of State Bank of Pakistan will not be
reversed without prior approval of State Bank of Pakistan.
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                                                                                       ANNEXURE I
Date of Request._______________
1.    BORROWER’S PROFILE:
                Name                                                    Address
2.    DETAILS OF DIRECTORS/OWNERS/PARTNERS:
                 Name                                                   Address
3. MANAGEMENT:
A) EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS/PARTNERS:
     Name            Address                                NIC #                    Phone #
1.
2.
B)    NON- EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS/PARTNERS:
       Name              Address                            NIC #                    Phone #
1.
2.
4. CORPORATE STATUS:
 Sole Proprietorship           Partnership                   Public / Private Limited Company
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5.     NATURE OF BUSINESS:
     Industrial    Commercial       Agricultural        Services               Any other
6.    REQUESTED LIMITS:
                                    Amount                             Tenor
Fund Based
Non- Fund Based
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11. DETAILS OF SECONDARY COLLATERAL MORTGAGED/ PLEDGED:
A) AGAINST EXISTING FACILITIES:
 Name of Financial  Nature of   Total Amount Rank of Charge            Net Realizable
    Institution     Security                                               Value
1.
2.
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18. NET-WORTH (PARTICULARS OF ASSETS OWNED IN THEIR
    OWN NAMES BY THE DIRECTORS/PARTNERS/PROPRIETORS):
  Owner’s Name   Particulars of Assets Market value   Particulars of Liabilities
22. Memorandum and Articles of Association, By-laws etc. to be submitted by the borrower
    alongwith the request
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                                                                                    ANNEXURE II
Date of Request._______________
1.    BORROWER’S PROFILE:
                Name                                                 Address
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5.   REQUESTED LIMITS:
                                 Amount                                  Tenor
Fund Based
Non- Fund Based
7. Latest Income Tax / Wealth Tax Form to be submitted by the borrow er.
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                                                                         ANNEXURE-III
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(II)   MEDIUM AND LONG TERM FINANCING FACILITIES :
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                                                                           pledged assets as
                                                                           valued by valuers
                                                                           fulfilling prescribed
                                                                           eligibility criteria, in
                                                                           accordance with the
                                                                           guidelines provided in
                                                                           this regulation.
Note:
         Classified loans / advances that have been guaranteed by the Government would not require
        provisioning, however, markup / interest on such accounts shall be taken to suspense account
        instead of income account.
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                                                                     ANNEXURE-IV
2.      Hypothecated assets and assets with second charge and floating charge
shall not be considered.
4.      Full Scope Valuation shall be done at least once in three years. For
example any valuation done on November 01, 1999 would be valid for
consideration for the accounting periods ending on December 31, 1999, December
31, 2000 and December 31, 2001, thus for subsequent accounting periods, a fresh
valuation would be required. The valuation process will include conducting a ‘Full-
Scope Valuation’ of the assets in the first year and then followed by ‘Desktop
Valuations’ in the second and third year. Evaluators on the panel of the PBA will
be eligible to conduct only two Full Scope valuations consecutively of a company,
as such the companies being evaluated will require to change evaluator after two
consecutive Full Scope valuations i.e. for a full period of six years.
5.      State Bank may check the valuations of the mortgaged assets through an
independent evaluator, on random basis, to verify the reasonableness of the
valuations. The unjustified differences in the valuations of the banks / DFIs and
State Bank of Pakistan shall render the concerned bank / DFI and evaluator to
penal actions.
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6.      The categories of mortgaged / pledged assets to be considered for
valuation along with discounting factors to be applied would be as under (no other
assets shall be taken into consideration):
       a) Liquid Assets:
          Valuation of Liquid Assets shall be determined by the bank / DFI itself
          and verified by the external auditors. However, in the case of pledged
          shares of listed companies, values should be taken at market value as
          per active list of Stock Exchange(s) on the balance sheet date and as
          per guidelines given in the TR-23 issued by the Institute of Chartered
          Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP). Moreover, valuation of shares
          pledged against loans/advances shall be considered only if these have
          been routed through Central Depository Company of Pakistan (CDC),
          otherwise these will not be admissible for deduction as liquid assets
          while determining required provisions.
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