SBI, HDFC Bank cut lending rates by 5 to 50 basis points
The country's premier lender State Bank of India (SBI) and the private sector HDFC Bank on Wednesday announced a cut in lending rates, taking a cue from the central bank's announcement of policy rate cut at its review meeting on Tuesday.
SBI informed BSE that it is effecting a cut of 5 basis points (bps) each in both base rate (BR) and benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) effective from February 4, 2013 at its Liability-Asset meeting on Wednesday, while HDFC Bank decided to reduce auto loan rates by up to 50 basis points (bps) effective February 1. One basis point is equivalent to one-hundredth of a percentage point.As such, SBI's base rate now stands revised to 9.7 percent from the existing 9.75 percent per annum and BPLR to 14.45 percent from 14.50 percent earlier.
HDFC auto loan
Further, private sector lender HDFC Bank chose to prune auto loan rates by up to 50 bps. Effectively lending rates for other borrowers including SME and corporates remains the same.
With this, HDFC Bank's interest rate on car loan will be lower by 25 bps and for two-wheelers it will be cheaper by 50 bps, while in the case of commercial vehicles too, the reduction in the lending rate will be 25 bps, said a top official from the Bank headquartered in Mumbai.
HDFC Bank will now offer the car loan ranged between 10.5 to 11.5 per cent for 36 to 60 months tenure as against 10.75 to 11.75 previously, that is prior to the RBI's announcement of rate cut.
Similarly, post-rate cut the interest rate on two-wheeler loans would be adjusted to between 19.25 to 22.25 per cent, while on commercial vehicles, the rate on heavy commercial vehicle will be down by 25 bps to 11 percent and for light commercial vehicle will be reduced to 13.75 per cent.
