New Delhi: The country's largest lender State Bank of India on Thursday slashed benchmark lending rate by 15 basis points, and introduced special deposit scheme for senior citizens with higher interest rate.
To safeguard the interests of senior citizens in the current falling rate regime, the bank has introduced a new product 'SBI Wecare Deposit' for them in the retail term deposit segment, SBI said in a statement.
Under this new product, an additional 30 basis points premium will be payable for senior citizen's retail term deposits with "5 Years & above" tenor only, it said.
This scheme would be in effect up to September 30, it said.
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However, SBI slashed its interest rates on retail term deposits by 20 basis points for 'up to 3 Years' tenor, effective from May 12 in view of adequate liquidity in the system as well as with the bank.
With regard to revision in the lending rate, the bank said, the marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) comes down to 7.25 per cent from 7.40 per cent with effect from May 10.
Consequently, EMIs on eligible home loan accounts (linked to MCLR) will get cheaper by approx Rs 255.00 for a 30 year loan of Rs 25 lakh, it said.
This is the twelfth consecutive reduction in the bank's MCLR, the bank added.
Hike in home loan rates by up to 30 basis points
SBI has also increased its home loan rates that are linked to repo rate by up to 30 basis points amid market indications of increased credit risk for borrowers and realty firms in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, according to a senior official.
The lender has also hiked interest rates on personal loans against property by 30 basis points.
With market leader SBI making the move, other lenders are also likely to follow suit.
Most of the home loans are given on the basis of repo rate or MCLR.
While SBI has kept the external benchmark-linked lending rate constant at 7.05 per cent, the increase in home loan rates has been done by raising margins by up to 30 basis points across various home loan products.
The new rates came into effect from May 1, as per information available on its website.
For home loans up to Rs 75 lakh, SBI has increased the spread by 20 basis points. For home loans up to Rs 30 lakh, the effective rate, which is EBR plus spread, now stands at 7.40 per cent as against 7.20 per cent on April 1, 2020.
The effective rate for home loans above Rs 30 lakh and up to Rs 75 lakh has been increased to 7.65 per cent from earlier rate of 7.45 per cent. For home loans above Rs 75 lakh, the new rate stands at 7.75 per cent as against 7.55 per cent earlier.
The spread under the Maxgain home loan category has been increased by 30 basis points. The effective rate for Maxgain home loans up to Rs 30 lakh has been hiked to 7.75 per cent from 7.45 per cent.
The bank has also increased the spread for its Personal Loan Against Property (P-LAP) by 30 basis points.
The effective rate for P-LAP up to Rs 1 crore has been raised to 9.20 per cent as against 8.90 per cent as on April 1, 2020. For loans above Rs 1 crore and up to 2 crore, the effective rate stands at 9.70 per cent as against 9.40 per cent earlier.
SBI to extend moratorium to NBFCs
SBI has also decided to extend the RBI-approved moratorium to the cash-strapped NBFC sector to help them tide over the crisis, its MD Dinesh Kumar Khara said on Thursday.
The RBI has allowed banks to extend moratorium to borrowers of term loans of all kinds for three months -- March, April and May.
"SBI has taken a decision to extend the moratorium allowed by RBI to the NBFC sector which is facing severe problem of cashflow," Khara said.
The bank would extend the moratorium to the Non- Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) on a case-to-case basis after assessing their cash budgets and examining the need for extending it, he told PTI.
(PTI Report)
