ICICI Bank ups lending rates by 25 bps

The leading lender ICICI Bank today effected a 25 basis points increase in its base rate to 7.75 per cent, a notch above its immediate rival HDFC Bank, whose revised lending rate stands at 7.50 per cent.

The largest private sector lender said the new rate will be effective Wednesday on all loans, barring fixed rates. It also hiked its interest rates for various tenors of fixed deposits by 0.25-50 per cent with effect from tomorrow.

The upward revision in base rates follows the RBI's move to raise short-term lending (repo) and borrowing (reverse repo) rates in its September 16 mid-quarter monetary review.

Earlier in the day, the second-largest private sector lender HDFC Bank raised its minimum lending rate by 0.25 bps to 7.50 per cent with immediate effect. It hiked its benchmark prime lending rate by 0.5 per cent to 16.25 per cent.

That apart, Bank of Baroda and Development Credit Bank too hiked their base rates by 50 bps today. While Bank of Baroda hiked its base rate to 8.5 from 8 per cent with immediate effect, Development Credit Bank raised its lending rate from 7.75 per cent to 8.25 per cent with effect.

In the past few days, many banks hiked their base rates and interest rates. On September 30, Punjab National Bank hiked the minimum rate of interest on loans to 8.5 from 8 per cent, while Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and StanChart raised their base rates by up to 25 basis points. The following day Indian Bank and Indian Overseas Bank, Karur Vysya Bank also raised their lending rates by up to 50 basis points.