Columnist and Chartered Accountant S Gurumurthy today made a strong pitch for a separate financial architecture for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India.

"A separate financial architecture for SMEs is necessary for the country. The government has said that it will create a separate financial architecture, we must ensure it is created," Gurumurthy said on the sidelines of an event here. Noting that there are at least 20 million small financial institutions in India, which finances small businesses, he stresses need for banks lending to them at cheaper rate. "...they (small financial institutions) are lending to SMEs at 36-45 per cent because they are borrowing at that rate. If banks lend to them at 10-12 per cent then they will lend at 14-15 per cent," Gurumurthy said.