While the Mission provides only catalytic capital support to the community institutions, it is expected that the banks provide the major chunk of funds required for meeting the entire gamut of credit needs for the rural poor households.  The Mission therefore expects that the SHGs leverage significant amount of bank credit.

Bank linkages to SHGs is a core area to stabilize livelihoods, and we envisage that each member of our SHG will need about Rs 1 lakh in repeat doses over next 5-6 years.

ASRLMS in a very short span of time has firmly established itself by effectively extending its outreach to some of the remotest geographies of the State. Several successful stories of women who had availed loans from Bank broke the poverty inertia and have further boasted the moral of ASRLMS.

Bank Credit to the SHG are facilitated by

1. Exposure of Bankers to best practicing sites (Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, etc.)
2. Organizing workshop/meetings on Financial Inclusion at different level
3. Participating  SLBC, DCC,DLRC,BLBC meetings by Financial Inclusion team of ASRLMS
4. Organizing SHG Credit Camp in collaboration with all major operating banks
5. Selection and placing Bank Mitras/ Bank Sakhis
6. Formation and capacity building of Community Based Recovery Mechanism (CBRM) committees

As per Reserve Bank of India, the loan amount that should be sanctioned to SHG is as follows

• First dose:Rs. 1,00,000 or 6 times to the proposed corpus whichever is higher.
• Second dose: Rs. 2 lakhs or 8 times of corpus whichever is higher.
• Third dose: Minimum of Rs. 3 lakhs, based on the MCP
• Fourth dose onwards: Loan amount can be between Rs. 5-10 lakhs based on the MCP.                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Under Interest Subvention Scheme of Govt. of India, eligible women SHGs from 8 districts viz. Chirang, Dhemaji, Hailakandi, Jorhat, Karbi Anglong, Nagaon, Sonitpur, Tinsukia can access bank credit at an interest rate of 4% per annum. Govt. of Assam has taken initiatives to provide interest subvention so that eligible women SHGs from the remaining 25 districts can also access bank credit at an interest rate of 7 % per annum. 

SHG Bank Linkage: Initiatives from NRLM

• Training of All SHG Members on Bank Linkage
• Training of All Members on Financial Management
• Capitalization of SHGs and Federations
• Building credit worthy SHGs
• Identification and training of Bank Sakhis
• Community Based Recovery Mechanism (CBRM)
• Exposure visit of Bankers to best practicing sites
• Common Application Form for opening of SB a/c & loan application
• Regularization of BLBC/DCC/DLRC meetings and keeping NRLM Bank Linkage as core agenda
• Interest Subvention to SHGs
• Regular review and laisoning with all operating banks, branch managers, regional managers, NABARD officials.

Repayment Strategy:

1.   Zero NPA Policy
      a) Training/Awareness on Financial Literacy
      b) Regular Monitoring of Repayment by ASRLMS
      c) NRLM SHG Bank Linkage Portal
      d)Sharing of overdue SHG data by banks to ASRLMS.
2.   Community Based Recovery Mechanism

       a) Monthly meeting with Branch Manager
       b) Immediate Bank Linkage to eligible SHGs
       c) Ensure 100% Recovery of Loans
       d) To reduce the Gap between two loans

3.    Sharing of default WSHG detail to NRLM