IDFC Bank sets base rate at 9.5%

The bank's base rate is much lower than several of its peers like YES Bank (10.25%) and Bandhan (12%)

IDFC Bank, the newest lender in the country, has set its base rate at 9.5 per cent. Base rate is the benchmark lending rate to which all loans are linked.

The bank’s base rate is much lower than several of its peers such as YES Bank (10.25 per cent) and Bandhan (12 per cent).

However, at the same time, the interest rate offered on savings account by IDFC Bank is only four  per cent compared with 4.5-7 per cent offered by some of the other lenders such as Bandhan, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and YES Bank. For IDFC Bank, the deposit rate varies between 4-8.25 per cent for deposits below Rs 1 crore for a tenure of almost one year one month.

For deposits above Rs 1 crore, the lender will be offering an interest rate of six per cent. The bank begun operations on Thursday with 23 branches spread across Madhya Pradesh, New Delhi and Mumbai.

However, IDFC’s stock tanked in trade on Thursday after the banking arm — IDFC Bank — got demerged from the infrastructure lender.  The stock was down 8.62 per cent on the BSE and ended the day at Rs 60.30. The current shareholders of IDFC will get one share of IDFC Bank for every share held by them.