Cent Saarthi – MSME Advisory Services – Central Bank of India

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Case Study

Cent Saarthi – MSME Advisory Services – Central Bank of India

Central Bank of India’s “Cent Saarthi – MSME Advisory Services” represents an effort to transform the Bank’s engagement with micro, small and medium enterprises from a largely product-oriented banking relationship into a more comprehensive business-support ecosystem. Launched on 1 March 2026, the initiative has been conceived as a unified advisory platform through which MSMEs can access financial products, business advisory, digital tools, formalisation support, operational solutions, market-development services and stress-management assistance. The central idea is to position Central Bank of India as the primary service owner while allowing empanelled fintech and ecosystem partners to deliver specialised services in the background. Instead of directing MSME customers to multiple external platforms, Cent Saarthi is intended to retain the customer within a bank-led environment and integrate partner capabilities through APIs.

The project responds to a fundamental challenge faced by MSMEs: the fragmentation of business-support services. An MSME may require assistance with registration, taxation, accounting, digital payments, receivable management, certification, market access, insurance, credit assessment and recovery at different stages of its lifecycle. Traditionally, these requirements may involve separate providers, websites, processes and customer journeys. The nomination identifies this fragmented experience as a major issue, with customers required to navigate multiple execution flows without a single bank-controlled portal for MSME advisory services. External redirections further dilute the continuity of the experience, while advisory requests, follow-ups, reporting and audit trails remain scattered across disconnected channels. The absence of a structured framework for partner governance and service routing also makes it difficult to onboard future advisory services in a scalable manner.

Cent Saarthi seeks to address these gaps by creating a unified, bank-first advisory architecture. Central Bank of India remains the visible and primary interface for the MSME customer, while specialised fintech and ecosystem partners are integrated behind the scenes. This model is significant because the Bank does not merely aggregate links to external service providers; rather, it aims to retain the customer within its own service journey. According to the nomination, the approach is expected to create a single advisory experience, improve governance through one request trail, customer profile and dashboard, and establish a common partner-control framework. API-enabled integration is also intended to provide flexibility and scalability as the Bank expands the range of services available on the platform.

The objectives of Cent Saarthi extend beyond providing credit. A major goal is to help MSMEs formalise their businesses, improve bankability and increase the adoption of digital processes. The platform envisages assistance with Udyam registration, onboarding drives, guided checklists, document readiness and basic business formalisation. It also seeks to standardise business plans and cash-flow templates and encourage the use of QR payments, invoice payments and similar tools. Another objective is the creation of stronger digital footprints through GST-linked information, QR and UPI collections, receivable tagging and expense categorisation. Role-based dashboards and capacity-building partnerships are also envisaged for business owners and professional advisers such as chartered accountants. Together, these interventions seek to make MSMEs better organised, digitally visible and more capable of interacting with the formal financial system.

The solution is organised around four broad pillars corresponding to different stages and requirements of the MSME lifecycle. The first pillar focuses on advisory services for new MSMEs and includes formalisation and related professional support. The nomination envisages working with specialised providers in areas such as registration, legal assistance, taxation and digital onboarding. The second pillar focuses on operational excellence and includes solutions for accounting, business management, payments, receivables, invoicing and cash-flow management. A wide ecosystem of technology and fintech partners is proposed for this purpose. By bringing these capabilities into a common framework, the Bank aims to move beyond lending and assist businesses in strengthening their everyday operations.

The third pillar addresses market development and certification. MSMEs often face difficulties in expanding beyond local markets, adopting digital commerce or accessing modern payment and distribution channels. Cent Saarthi proposes to connect customers with partners offering payment solutions, digital-commerce capabilities, certification support and market-access services. The fourth pillar focuses on expansion and stress management. This is designed to bring together capabilities related to credit analytics, insurance, risk assessment, recovery, collections and other services that can help MSMEs manage periods of financial pressure and support future expansion. The Bank also plans to integrate Cent Saarthi with its digital lending platform and roll out the initiative through four stages over a twelve-month period.

One of the most distinctive features of Cent Saarthi is its ecosystem-led model of service delivery. Rather than attempting to build every advisory capability internally, the Bank proposes to work with empanelled fintech and specialised service providers while maintaining control over the customer interface. This creates the possibility of combining the trust and reach of a public sector bank with the specialised technological capabilities of external partners. The innovation lies not merely in partnering with fintechs, but in integrating them behind a common bank-led experience. This can reduce the need for customers to repeatedly shift between external platforms and potentially gives the Bank greater visibility over service requests, fulfilment, follow-ups and partner performance. The proposed architecture is also intended to allow additional services and partners to be incorporated without redesigning the entire customer journey.

Implementation, however, involves substantial challenges. Integrating numerous service providers while preserving a seamless and secure customer experience requires strong technical and governance arrangements. Different partners may have different systems, service processes and data requirements, making standardised API integration and routing essential. The Bank must also establish mechanisms to track advisory requests, follow-ups, fulfilment and audit trails through a unified framework. Another challenge is ensuring structured partner governance as the number of services expands. The nomination itself recognises the limitations of disconnected channels, external redirections and insufficient tracking, indicating that overcoming these weaknesses is central to the success of the Cent Saarthi model.

Overall, Cent Saarthi reflects Central Bank of India’s effort to reposition MSME banking around an integrated ecosystem of finance, advisory, technology and capacity building. Its importance lies in recognising that the challenges of MSMEs cannot always be addressed through credit alone. Formalisation, digitalisation, efficient operations, market access and early stress management are interconnected elements of enterprise growth. By bringing these functions within a bank-controlled framework and integrating external expertise through technology, Cent Saarthi seeks to create a more seamless and scalable MSME-support architecture. Since the nomination describes many of the results in future-oriented terms, the full impact will depend on implementation and adoption over time. Nevertheless, the initiative establishes a structured model through which a public sector bank can potentially deepen its MSME relationships while expanding its role from financial service provider to long-term enterprise partner.

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For more information, please contact:
Himanshu Gupta at gmmsme@centralbank.bank.in

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