<p>State-owned Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) on Tuesday slashed base rate or minimum lending rate by a marginal 0.1 per cent while fixed deposit rates on select maturities by up to 0.5 per cent.
The bank has reduced the base rate by 10 basis points to 10.65 per cent from 10.75 per cent, OBC said in a statement. The reduction in base rate will make all kind of loans, including housing, auto loans cheaper by at least 0.1 per cent. The new rate would be effective from tomorrow, it said. As far as deposit rates are concerned, the bank reduced interest rate on fixed deposits with maturity between 1-2 years by 0.25 per cent to 9.50 per cent. For term deposits worth Rs 15 lakh to Rs 1 crore with maturity between 46-90 days, the new interest rate will be 0.5 per cent lower than the existing 9 per cent.
The bank has increased its rate of interest applicable for senior citizens from 0.5 per cent to 0.6 per cent over and above the card rate. The new fixed deposit rates would be effective from April 16.
Interestingly, some of the large public sector banks like Bank of Baroda, Bank of India raised their deposit rates upwards last month.
Increased in the fixed deposit rates by these banks was due to tight liquidity situation. To improve liquidity in the system, RBI in March had reduced the cash reserve ratio (CRR)-- the portion of deposits banks require to keep with the central bank -- from 5.5 per cent to 4.75 per cent.
With the reduction, the central bank pumped in Rs 48,000 crore in the economy.
