A recent press report said that State Bank of India and ICICI Bank have raised their lending rates, the second time in the last one month.
Reports said that SBI has increased its base rate and benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) by 50 basis points each to 10 per cent from 9.50 per cent and 14.75 per cent from 14.25 per cent respectively.
ICICI Bank has hiked its base rate and BPLR by 50 basis points each to 10 per cent and 18.75 per cent respectively. In this case too, the rate hikes are effective from August 13.
Reports said that except for agriculture advances, the hike in the lending rate benchmarks will impact borrower’s home loan, auto loan, personal loan, business loan etc.
SBI, India’s biggest bank, had last hiked the base rate and BPLR by 25 basis points each in early July to 9.50 per cent and 14.25 per cent respectively. Reports added saying that SBI has increased the interest rate of deposits on only one maturity bucket — 180-240 days — by 50 basis points to 7 per cent.
Mr. Diwakar Gupta, Managing Director, State Bank of India said that the bank was ensuring short-term liquidity by increasing the deposit rate at the short-end. The bank has not increased the long-term deposit rates as that would give an upward bias to the deposit rates in the banking system.