A recent press report said that Bank of Maharashtra is likely to hike its base rate by 25 basis points from 1st October 2011, following the latest policy rate hike by the Reserve Bank of India.
Mr. A. S. Bhattacharya, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank told the press that the bank has planned to take a decision on September 25 in its asset- liability committee meeting and it’s likely that the base rate will be increased by 25 basis points from October 1.
He said the bank had not increased its base rate after the previous RBI interest rate hike on July 26 and the current base rate is 10.5 per cent. When asked about credit growth expectations, he said the bank has planned to register credit growth of 18 per cent in the current financial year.
Mr. Bhattacharya said that the bank has aimed for credit growth of around 25 per cent for this fiscal and that the credit growth has been moderated to 18 per cent due to the rise in interest rates and slow uptick in advances growth in the corporate and infrastructure sector.
The bank also does not see any fall in its asset quality despite interest rate hikes. However the hike in interest rates is expected to make loans such as home loan, personal loans, car loan, education loan, gold loan etc. of the bank costlier.